WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that the freight forwarding company Ram International Inc. (Ram) of St. Louis, MO, has agreed to pay a $40,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that it committed two violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

BIS alleges that on two occasions in 2006, Ram’s Elk Grove Village, IL. office aided and abetted the unlicensed export of salvage scrap electrolytic tin plate steel to Allied Trading Company in Karachi, Pakistan, without the required BIS licenses.  Allied is included on the Commerce Department’s Entity List which names certain foreign persons -- including businesses, research institutions, government and private organizations, individuals, and other types of legal persons-- that are subject to license requirements for the export, reexport and/or transfer in-country of specified items.

The Commerce Department Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement, David W. Mills, commended the BIS Office of Export Enforcement Chicago Field Office for its work on the investigation.

BACKGROUND

BIS controls exports and re-exports of dual-use commodities, technology, and software for reasons of national security, missile technology, nuclear non-proliferation, chemical and biological weapons non-proliferation, crime control, regional stability, foreign policy and anti-terrorism.  Criminal penalties and administrative sanctions can be imposed for violations of the EAR.  For more information, please visit www.bis.doc.gov.