Bad publicity can be ‘devastating’
ALAN PEAT
IN THE US export trade, those companies found guilty of contravening the rules and controls are being exposed in public on the internet, according to US-based attorneys Gonzalez Rolon Valdespino & Rodriguez
“The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) are posting the identities of recent violators on their websites,” the company told FTW.
And the BIS (enforcers of the export administration regulations) does it with a great deal more fanfare than does OFAC (the agency with primary responsibility for enforcing US sanctions laws), it was added.
However, FTW was told, no matter how much or how little detail is revealed, the bad publicity can be “devastating”.
The information can be so damaging, said the attorneys, that OFAC started making the violator list available only after being prodded by freedom of information requests and other legal and political pressures.
If you want to see the list of US violators, it can be found on the lawyers’ website: www.exportimportlaw.com
