The Commerce Department Slapped three companies with civil penalties this week for allegedly violating the anti-boycott provisions of the Export Administration Act and Regulations.
The companies – Habib Bank Ltd., of New York, Jack Schwartz Shoes, Inc., also of New York, and the Texas-based Import Export Management Services – agreed to pay the penalties, but they neither admitted nor denied the alleged violations.
The Commerce Department fined Habib Bank Ltd., a branch if a Pakistani bank, $60,000 for allegedly giving information about other people’s business relationships with Israel to the United Arab Emirates and Oman on five occasions between February 1988 and February 1992.
In addition, the bank allegedly failed to report receiving 84 boycott-related requests from those countries, as required by the Export Administration Act and Regulations.
Jack Schwartz Shoes, Inc., an athletic shoe manufacturer, agreed to pay a $15,000 penalty for alleged violations involving four transactions with a Saudi Arabian company, the Commerce Department said.
The department also alleged that between March and April 1992, the company gave information to a U.S. bank about its own and a second company’s business dealings with Israel.
Import Export Management Services, an office supply exporter, allegedly gave information about its business relationship with Israel to a Syrian company in May 1993.
The company also failed to report two requests for boycott-related information, one from Syria and one from Kuwait, the Commerce Department reported. The company will pay a $7,500 civil penalty.
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