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BIS Announces $2 Million Settlement with Lambda Research Corporation for 66 Export Control Violations 

On October 2, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a $2 million administrative settlement with Massachusetts-based Lambda Research Corporation involving 66 alleged violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The case involved exports of optical and illumination design software, automatic software updates, and transactions with parties on the Entity List and Unverified List. 

Key Takeaways 

  • EAR99 does not mean unrestricted. Even software classified as EAR99 may require an export license when the recipient is on the BIS Entity List. 
  • Automatic software updates can constitute exports. BIS charged Lambda with violations involving software updates transmitted to restricted parties after their addition to the Entity List. 
  • Restricted-party screening must be ongoing. A customer who was not restricted when a transaction began may become subject to licensing requirements later. 
  • Distributors do not eliminate export compliance obligations. Exporters must evaluate the actual end users of their products, including transactions conducted through intermediaries. 
  • The Unverified List creates additional compliance requirements. Certain transactions involving Unverified List parties require a UVL statement even when an export license is not otherwise required. 
  • Informal compliance efforts are insufficient. BIS cited Lambda’s lack of written export compliance procedures, employee training, and designated compliance personnel. 
  • Voluntary self-disclosure does not eliminate penalties. […]
By |2026-10-09T11:34:59-04:00October 9, 2026|EAR, Enforcement, Export, Penalty, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)|0 Comments
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Treasury’s First Outbound Investment Penalty: $200,000 Against Amidi LLC 

On October 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the first civil penalty issued under its Outbound Investment Security Program (OISP): $200,000 against Amidi LLC, the U.S. parent company of the organization known as Plug and Play Tech Center, for failing to notify Treasury of an investment its Chinese fund subsidiary made in a Chinese embodied artificial intelligence company. 

The underlying investment was approximately $92,478. U.S. investors, venture funds, accelerators, and corporates with offshore investment vehicles should take note: the notification obligation reaches transactions by a U.S. person’s controlled foreign entities, and Treasury has now penalized a missed filing on a small deal. 

Key Takeaways 

  • Treasury imposed a $200,000 civil penalty on Amidi LLC for failing to notify Treasury of an investment of approximately $92,478 in a Chinese AI and robotics company. 
  • The investment was made by Amidi’s Chinese fund subsidiary. The OISP regulations require a U.S. person to notify Treasury of a notifiable transaction by its controlled foreign entity. 
  • The current rules contain no general de minimis threshold for notification, and the existing regulations at 31 CFR Part 850 remain in effect while Treasury implements the COINS Act. 

What Happened 

On April 19, 2025, a Chinese fund owned by Amidi invested approximately $92,478 in Shanghai Qiongche Intelligent Technology Company Limited (Noematrix), […]

By |2026-10-09T11:26:48-04:00October 9, 2026|EAR, Enforcement, Export, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)|0 Comments
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BIS FY2025 Annual Report Signals Major Increase in Export Enforcement 

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released its Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report to Congress, providing a detailed look at the agency’s export control, licensing, and enforcement activity.  

Key Takeaways 

  • BIS reports an 18-fold increase in penalties, from approximately $16 million in calendar year 2024 to approximately $324 million in 2025. 
  • BIS completed 53 administrative enforcement actions, resulting in more than $108 million in civil penalties during FY2025. 
  • BIS enforcement activity included 455 warning letters, 705 detentions, 232 seizures, and 29 denial orders. 
  • BIS investigations resulted in 65 criminal convictions of individuals and companies during FY2025. 
  • BIS completed 1,840 end-use checks across 73 countries, demonstrating the agency’s ability to scrutinize transactions even after goods leave the United States. 
  • BIS added 142 entities to the Entity List, including parties associated with advanced computing, quantum technology, hypersonic weapons programs, and Iranian drone procurement. 
  • Licensing for Entity List parties has become significantly more restrictive: BIS reports granting only 16 new licenses to Entity List companies during Q2–Q4 2025. 
  • Exporters should reassess restricted-party screening, end-user and end-use diligence, product classification, licensing procedures, recordkeeping, and escalation protocols in light of […]
By |2026-09-11T14:55:38-04:00September 11, 2026|Best Practices, EAR, Enforcement, Export, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)|Comments Off on BIS FY2025 Annual Report Signals Major Increase in Export Enforcement 
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White House Releases National Security Science & Technology Strategy: What It Signals for CFIUS, Outbound Investment, and Export Controls 

As mandated by Section 10612 of the CHIPS and Science Act, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued the National Security Science and Technology Strategy (NSSTS), which implements the S&T priorities of the 2025 National Security Strategy. While framed as a technology strategy, the NSSTS previews concrete near-term action on CFIUS, outbound investment, export controls, and federal research security — direct touchpoints for clients in cross-border investment, controlled technology, and federally funded R&D. 

Key Takeaways 

  • CFIUS’ scope is set to expand. The Administration will seek authority, in consultation with Congress, to monitor high-risk “greenfield” investments and to expand CFIUS’s critical-technology jurisdiction, while continuing to calibrate scrutiny to an investor’s “verifiable distance” from adversary-linked actors under the America First Investment Policy’s allied fast-track approach. 
  • Outbound investment restrictions will broaden. Treasury will refine and likely expand the Outbound Investment Security Program (Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act of 2025) beyond its current scope – AI, quantum, semiconductors, supercomputers, and hypersonics – to reach additional sectors implicated by China’s military-civil fusion strategy. Although the current NSSTS did not reference other countries by name, the strategy will likely be implemented in a way that circumvents particular investments in Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Iran, and North Korea – in line with President Trump’s “America-first investment policy,” published in February 2025. 
  • Export controls: deregulation and new restrictions in parallel. BIS is streamlining select controls (e.g., a […]
By |2026-09-03T12:13:54-04:00September 3, 2026|CFIUS, EAR, Export, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), U.S. Department of Treasury, Uncategorized|Comments Off on White House Releases National Security Science & Technology Strategy: What It Signals for CFIUS, Outbound Investment, and Export Controls 
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BIS End-Use Checks: What Happens When an Export Control Officer Calls Your Customer 

BIS has published a plain-language FAQ on its End-Use Check program, the on-site visits its Export Control Officers conduct at foreign consignees and end users of U.S.-origin items. This article explains what those visits are, what your foreign customer will be asked to produce, the statutory and regulatory authority behind the request, and the consequences when a check cannot be completed. It matters because the penalty for a failed check falls on the exporter’s ability to ship, not only on the foreign party being visited. 

Key Takeaways 

  • An End-Use Check (EUC) is BIS verifying, on site and overseas, that your foreign customer is who it says it is and used your items the way the license or the EAR required. 
  • A failed or incomplete check does not need a finding of wrongdoing to hurt you. The customer can land on the Unverified List, license exceptions disappear, and every shipment then requires a UVL statement. 
  • Since October 2022, a check that stays incomplete for 60 days after Unverified List placement, because a host government blocks it, triggers Entity List proceedings. 
  • The exporter’s exposure is set before the visit ever happens: by the accuracy of the license application, the quality of the paper trail, and whether the foreign party was told what to expect. 
  • Diaz Trade Law prepares exporters […]
By |2026-09-03T12:03:09-04:00September 3, 2026|Best Practices, EAR, Enforcement, Export, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)|Comments Off on BIS End-Use Checks: What Happens When an Export Control Officer Calls Your Customer 
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Bosch Agrees to Pay $36 Million Penalty to BIS for Unauthorized Shipments to Huawei 

Robert Bosch GmbH (Bosch), the German multinational engineering and technology company, has agreed to pay a $36,184,680 penalty to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for exporting controlled items to Huawei Technologies Co. and its affiliates without the required U.S. government authorization. 

What Happened 

Between September 2020 and September 2024, Bosch exported approximately $72.4 million worth of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensor products and automotive software from abroad to Huawei and its affiliates. The exported items were subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) under the Foreign Direct Product Rule, a rule that extends U.S. export controls to certain foreign-produced items that incorporate U.S. technology or are manufactured using U.S. equipment. Because Huawei and its affiliates are listed on BIS’s Entity List, any shipment of items subject to the EAR requires a license from BIS. No such license or authorization was obtained. 

The MEMS sensors at issue are widely used in consumer products, including smartphones, wearable technology, and automobiles. 

The Penalty 

In addition to the $36 million BIS civil penalty, Bosch separately agreed with the Department of Justice to disgorge profits from the transactions, with an actual payment of approximately $3.6 million. BIS suspended approximately $3.6 million of its penalty as credit for the disgorgement, bringing Bosch’s total financial exposure to roughly $39.8 million. 

Bosch filed a Voluntary Self-Disclosure with […]

By |2026-06-18T12:00:24-04:00June 18, 2026|EAR, Enforcement, Export, International Trade, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)|Comments Off on Bosch Agrees to Pay $36 Million Penalty to BIS for Unauthorized Shipments to Huawei 
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ICYMI: Technology Company Pleads Guilty to Export Control Violations, Agrees to $140M Fine

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) of the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) National Security Division announced that Cadence Design Systems, Inc. of San Jose, California, agreed to plead guilty to resolve criminal violations of export controls. 

As part of the plea agreement, Cadence will pay criminal penalties of nearly $118 million. 

In addition to the charges, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) also announced the resolution of a civil enforcement action against the company in which Cadence agreed to pay over $95 million in civil penalties. 

The DoJ and BIS have coordinated the resolution of the parallel investigation, and each agreed to a partial credit against their fine for payments made to satisfy the other agency’s fine. Under the coordinated agreement, Cadence will pay criminal and civil penalties of more than $140 million.

Cadence committed criminal violations of the export control laws by selling hardware, software, and semiconductor design intellectual property to the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China. NUDT was added to the Department of Commerce’s Entity List in February 2015. The university was involved in the development of supercomputers with applications for military and nuclear explosive simulations. 

Cadence and its Chinese subsidiary engaged in a conspiracy to commit export control violations by exporting this technology to NUDT without obtaining the requisite licenses from […]

By |2025-08-07T11:02:35-04:00August 7, 2025|EAR, Enforcement, Export, International Trade, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)|Comments Off on ICYMI: Technology Company Pleads Guilty to Export Control Violations, Agrees to $140M Fine
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DoJ Declines Prosecution of Company That Self-Disclosed Export Control Offenses

The Justice Department announced that it will not be prosecuting Universities Space Research Association (USRA) for violations of U.S. export control laws, citing prompt self-disclosure and cooperation.

EAR Violation

In 2016, USRA was granted a contract with NASA to license and distribute

aeronautics-related and U.S. Army-owned flight control software. Jonathan Soong was employed by USRA and was responsible for performing due diligence on prospective purchasers. Soong willfully exported software subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to Beijing University, knowing that an export control license was required for the export because it was on the Entity List.

Soong used an intermediary to avoid detection, and embezzled tens of thousands of dollars in software license sales. He ultimately plead guilty to willfully violating the EAR. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Company Disclosure & Remediation

Within days of learning of Soong’s actions, USRA self-disclosed the violation to the Department’s National Security Division (NSD). The company fully cooperated with the ensuing criminal investigation, which eventually established that Soong had acted alone.

USRA’s cooperation included proactively collecting and disclosing evidence and providing detailed and timely responses to the government’s requests for information. USRA remediated the root cause of the misconduct by disciplining an employee who failed to appropriately supervise Soong, and by improving its internal controls and compliance program.

USRA also compensated the government both for the funds Soong embezzled, and for the time Soong had spent embezzling funds instead of performing his duties under the contract with NASA.

The DoJ cited the timely disclosure, cooperation, and remediation […]

By |2025-05-07T16:07:04-04:00May 7, 2025|EAR, Export|Comments Off on DoJ Declines Prosecution of Company That Self-Disclosed Export Control Offenses
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BIS Releases New Edition of “Don’t Let This Happen to You”

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published an updated version of Don’t Let This Happen to You!, a list of case examples highlighting BIS enforcement efforts including criminal cases.

Case highlights:

The publication highlights over 100 cases covering various violations of export control laws.

Military Controls

The owner of BQ Tree Consulting in Jacksonville, Florida, along with the President and Manager of the company were indicted for conspiring to illegally export military-grade combat rubber raiding craft (CCRC) to China.

The scheme involved providing a U.S. company with false end-use and end-user information for a front company in Hong Kong, which was used to complete the transaction ultimately destined for China. The intention was to reverse engineer the CRRC and engines to mass produce them for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.

The company owner was sentenced to 16 months in prison, two years of supervised release, mandatory mental health screening, and a $200 special assessment. The company President was sentenced to 42 months confinement, three years of probation, a $50,000 criminal fine, and a $200 special assessment. The company manager was sentenced to 17 months in prison, one year of supervised release pending deportation, a prohibition on employment with any company that deals with the military, and a $100 special assessment.

National Security Controls

GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc., a semiconductor wafer manufacturing company headquartered in Malta New York violated the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by sending 74 shipments of semiconductor wafers, valued at approximately $17.1 million, to SJ Semiconductor (SJS), a company […]

By |2024-11-22T07:18:29-05:00November 22, 2024|EAR, Export, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)|Comments Off on BIS Releases New Edition of “Don’t Let This Happen to You”
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BIS Issues Final Rule on VSD Policies and Penalty Guidelines

BIS recently issued a final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), making several changes to their Voluntary Self Disclosure (VSD) policies, as well as updates to guidance on penalty determinations.

The rule codifies previously announced policy changes through several Policy Memoranda including an April 2023 memorandum on voluntary-self disclosures, and a June 2022 memorandum on strengthening administrative enforcement.

Revisions to Voluntary Self-Disclosures

The rule makes both substantive and procedural changes to the VSD policies:

  1. Addition of non-disclosure as an aggravating factor – the new rule makes clear that BIS will consider a deliberate decision to not disclose a violation as an aggravated factor when determining what administrative sanctions will be imposed.
  2. New dual track for processing VSDs – one track for minor or technical violations, the other for significant violations.
  3. Authorizes any person (not just the party submitting a VSD) to notify the Director of BIS’s Office of Export Enforcement (OEE) that a violation has occurred and to request permission to engage in corrective activities.

Revisions to Penalty Guidelines

This rule makes several changes to the BIS Penalty Guidelines, including:

  1. Changes the base penalty caps:
    1. Non-egregious VSD cases: was $125,000, now one-half of the transaction value.
    2. Non-egregious cases that are not initiated by a VSD: was $250,000, now the full transaction value.
  2. Permits BIS to use  non-monetary penalties to resolve cases that are not egregious and have not resulted in national security harm, but rise above the level of cases warranting a warning letter.
  3. Removes from the BIS […]
By |2024-09-26T15:59:58-04:00September 26, 2024|EAR, Export, U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)|Comments Off on BIS Issues Final Rule on VSD Policies and Penalty Guidelines
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