Export and Economic Sanctions Penalties Increased

With all of the debate over renewal of other provisions of the PATRIOT Act, an unnoticed provision of the law recently signed by the President significantly increased penalties for violations of provisions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

On March 9, 2006, President Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-177 (H.R. 3199). Included in the PATRIOT Act reauthorization legislation was the Combating Terrorism Financing Act of 2005 (Title IV), which included an amendment to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1706 (IEEPA).

IEEPA currently provides the underlying statutory authority for the Export Administration Regulations, 15 C.F.R. Parts 730-774 (EAR), and various economic sanctions regulations including those applicable to Iran and Sudan. The basic civil penalty amount for EAR violations has been $10,000 (see EAR § 764.3(a)(1)) and the basic