Last year we heard that ZTE was going to be facing export restrictions for violating US sanctions and shipping US tech products to Iran. Now a resolution of that issue appears to have been reached.
ZTE has agreed to pay $1.19 billion as a result of its export violations. The US Department of Commerce announced the news today, saying that between January 2010 and April 2016, ZTE violated US export sanctions by illegally shipping telecommunications equipment to Iran and North Korea.
The DoC explains that ZTE was being investigated about its export violations for five years. The company “made knowingly false and misleading representations and statements to BIS or other US law enforcement agencies, explains the DoC, adding that ZTE “also engaged in an elaborate scheme to prevent disclosure to and affirmatively mislead the U.S. Government, by deleting and concealing documents and information from the outside counsel and forensic accounting firm that ZTE had retained with regard to the investigation.”
As a result of its plea agreement, ZTE will also submit to a three-years corporate probation and will be required to cooperate with the Department of Justice involving any criminal investigation by US law enforcement.
You can read the full announcements of this agreement from the US Department of Commerce and Department of Justice at the links below.
