Well, the ZTE case has finally run its course and ZTE has plead guilty to violating the Iran sanctions - leaving the big question now of who the other company was besides ZTE.
ZTE is pleading to one very expensive count on the indictement:
"Specifically, ZTE pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to unlawfully export in violation of the IEEPA, one count of obstruction of justice and one count of making a material false statement. ZTE agreed to pay a fine in the amount of $286,992,532 and a criminal forfeiture in the amount of $143,496,266, and submit to a three-year period of corporate probation, during which time an independent corporate compliance monitor will review and report on ZTE’s export compliance program."
So, what we are missing is the other company that was working with ZTE to violate the sanctions. The internal documents published at the time of the indictment said there was another company that was doing the same thing. The Treasury Department asked for documents from Huawai, but nothing came of the review that anyone knows. Maybe Huawai was not the company involved, but if not, we still need to know what company was.
Second, while the Iran sanctions took center stage on the announcement, ZTE was trading with several other banned countries besides Iran, in fact almost all of the ones we have sanctions against. Whatever price they paid in fines and criminal forfeiture were easily offset by the trade they did with these countries. China had to know they were doing this trade, which means they vote for sanctions in the U.N. then allow their own companies to violate them. How hypocritical is that? See also post front-companies-doing-for-china.html
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