Background

China-based Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd (collectively “ZTE”) entered a guilty plea and agreed to pay a combined penalty up to $1.19 billion to settle criminal and civil allegations that ZTE violated U.S. export control laws and U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S.-origin items to Iran.

The record-breaking settlement agreement was with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”). The penalty assessed against ZTE included a $100,871,266 civil monetary penalty imposed by OFAC; a $430,488,798 in combined criminal fines and forfeitures; and a $661,000,000 penalty payable to BIS, of which $300,000,000 were suspended for a seven-year probationary period. […]