WASHINGTON (JTA) — DHL, the international shipping company, will pay a $9.4 million fine for violating U.S. sanctions on shipments to Iran, Sudan and Syria.
The Treasury Department charged that DHL, part of Germany-based Deutsche Post DHL, made 309 shipments from the United States to Iran and Sudan from 2002 to 2007 in violation of U.S. embargoes with those countries, and also did not keep required records of other shipments to Iran between 2002 and 2006, according to media reports.
In addition, the Commerce Department said that DHL violated export restrictions on eight shipments to Syria in 2004 and did not keep appropriate records for 90 others.
The fine was "among the largest" ever assessed in such a case, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said.
DHL said in a statement that the shipments represented "significantly less than 1 percent of the total volume of DHL Express USA export transactions and involved shipments of correspondence, personal items, or consumer goods."
The company also emphasized that the government had not accused the company of shipping any items of "strategic sensitivity to these countries."
