The Bureau of Industry and Security never received a $30,000 payment required by Dec. 15 to keep the denial order suspended.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is activating a suspended five-year export denial order for Narender Sharma and India-based Hydel Engineering Products after discovering that they did not pay $30,000 to the Commerce Department by Dec. 15, which was a condition of the order’s suspension, BIS announced Friday.
BIS entered into a settlement agreement with Sharma and his company, Hydel Engineering Products, in August 2017, after they allegedly conspired to export items from the U.S. to Iran, including an Iranian government entity, without required U.S. government authorization, in violation of the Export Administration Regulations.
The settlement agreement imposed on Sharma and Hydel a civil penalty of $100,000, for which they are jointly and severally liable. They were required to pay $30,000 of this amount no later than Dec. 15, and payment of the remaining $70,000 was suspended for a probationary period of five years from the date of the Aug. 31, 2017, order, after which it would be waived, if certain conditions were met.
BIS notified Sharma and Hydel in a Feb. 12 letter of the proposed activation of the suspended sanctions and provided them with an opportunity to respond, including an opportunity to explain their failure to make the required Dec. 15 payment, and to show why BIS should not activate the $70,000 suspended penalty amount, issue an active five-year denial order against them or take both actions,” the notice says.
Neither Hydel nor Sharma responded, and the $30,000 civil penalty remains unpaid, the agency said.
BIS is now requiring Hydel and Sharma to pay the full civil penalty of $100,000, with the $30,000 being overdue and the other $70,000 being due by the end of Aug. 14. BIS also is suspending their export privileges through July 30, 2023.
Unauthorized exports to Iran net suspension
