[At least this is a bi-partisan policy: Merck & Co. Pharmaceuticals was fined a large amount under Clinton for trying to work with Cuba to test anti-AIDS medicine; our govt. boasted that the fine would have been larger but for the fact that Merck promised never to do anything like that again, as long as the sanctions remain. Note that this enforcement is not limited to just US corporations & US subsidiaries.--Art]

 

Chiron fined for trading with Cuba

Posted Thurs, Jul. 08, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Biotechnology company Chiron Corp. admitted it
illegally exported goods to Cuba and paid the U.S. government $168,500 in
civil penalties, the U.S. Treasury Department reported last month.

The Emeryville-based company voluntarily disclosed to the department that a
European subsidiary illegally shipped two vaccines for infants to Cuba
between 1999 and 2002.

``It was an inadvertent shipment on our part,'' said Chiron spokesman John
Gallagher. He said Chiron is licensed to ship one type of pediatric vaccine
through UNICEF to Cuba but inadvertently shipped two others not approved by
the U.S. government.

Gallagher said Chiron reported the shipping error to the Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, which enforces the
United States' 42-year-old embargo on Cuba and other economic sanctions
against six other countries.

It's the second highest fine OFAC announced this year and the highest by a
U.S.-based company. Panama City-based Alpha Pharmaceutical Inc. agreed

to a $198,700 fine for also trading with Cuba.

In all, OFAC announced this year that 122 companies violated economic
sanctions and were fined a total of $1.97 million for doing business with
Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. Most of the
violations involved dealings with Cuba.

What's more, 226 people have been fined a combined $348,000 this year for
travel and currency violations. All but one of those people, who OFAC
declined to identify, were fined for transactions involving Cuba.
OFAC was criticized earlier this year by senators from both political
parties for dedicating more resources to enforcing the embargo against Cuba
than in blocking terrorists' finances.

The agency supplied figures to the U.S. Senate that showed that at the end
of 2003, OFAC had 21 full-time agents working Cuba violations and just four
full-time workers hunting bin Laden's and Saddam's riches.

Since April 2003, OFAC has been publishing the names of companies it has
fined, which have included Playboy Enterprises Inc., the New York Yankees
and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
 

-------------------------------------------

On the Net:
Office of Foreign Assets Control:
http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/eotffc/ofac/