FedEx, DHL, Exel settle U.S. export violations
Express carriers FedEx and DHL Holdings (USA), and freight forwarder Exel North American Logistics have recently settled charges with the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security for allegedly violating the country’s export control regulations.
FedEx paid a $40,000 civil penalty for handling exports on behalf of two shippers for whom the federal government had temporarily denied export privileges. The carrier also failed to get a license for the export of a computer to Syria. BIS said the violations occurred in 2001 and 2004.
DHL Holdings (USA) paid an $18,000 civil penalty for shipping a strobe, networking equipment and printers on behalf of a shipper who also had its export privileges temporarily suspended by the federal government. The shipment was destined to Saudi Arabia. According to BIS, the violations occurred in 2001.
Exel North American Logistics, as successor to MSAS Global Logistics, paid an $8,000 civil penalty to settle charges that in 2000 it exported medical defibrillators to Iran without the required U.S. government authorization, a violation of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations. Specifically, MSAS forwarded the defibrillators to its South African division, which then transshipped them to Iran.
Since the late 1990s, exporters and forwarders have increasingly shared the regulatory burden for violations of U.S. export control rules.