March 8, 2017May 9th, 2023
FiledMay 9th, 2023In a record-breaking agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), China-based telecommunications giant ZTE Corporation (ZTE) agreed to enter a guilty plea and pay a combined penalty of up to $1.19 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that ZTE violated U.S. sanctions and export control laws by illegally shipping U.S-origin products to Iran and North Korea. The penalty includes $430,488,798 in combined criminal fines and forfeitures; a $100,871,266 civil monetary penalty imposed by OFAC; and a $661,000,000 penalty payable to BIS, of which $300,000,000 will be suspended during a seven-year probationary period. The criminal fine represents the largest that the DOJ has ever imposed in a prosecution under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). ZTE’s settlements with BIS and OFAC also represent t