On March 7, Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation and its subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd. and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively referred to as ZTE or ZTE Corporation) entered into a guilty plea with the U.S. Department of Justice and “agreed to pay a $430,488,798 penalty to the U.S. for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by illegally shipping U.S.-origin items to Iran, obstructing justice and making a material false statement.”
Simultaneously, ZTE also entered into settlement agreements with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for $100,871,266 related to the same conduct, as well as the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for $661 million for illegal exports of U.S.-origin product to Iran and North Korea.
In total, ZTE’s settlement reached $1.19 billion; BIS has agreed to suspend payment of $300,000,000, which ZTE will be required to pay if it violates the BIS settlement agreement.
For more information, contact: Jeff Snyder, Carlton Greene, Cari Stinebower, Dj Wolff