U.S. fines Fokker for breaking Iran, Sudan sanctions

The U.S. Treasury has fined Dutch aviation services firm Fokker Services $21 million for selling aircraft parts to Iran and Sudan in violation of U.S. sanctions on the two countries.

The Treasury said Thursday that it had reached a settlement with Fokker in which the company accepted responsibility for “egregious conduct” and agreed to pay the amount, which it said could have been up to $51 million.

The case involved an alleged 1,150 specific sanctions violations between 2005 and 2010, in which Fokker indirectly exported or re-exported aircraft spare parts to customers in Iran and Sudan.

The parts were either of U.S. origin or had been procured by Fokker in the United States, and the company needed a specific license from the government to ship them to Iran or Sudan, which it did not obtain.

“By illegally exporting aircraft spare parts to designated countries, (Fokker) flagrantly violated US sanctions laws and this illicit activity will not be tolerated,” said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement.

The settlement required Fokker’s “acceptance of responsibility for its criminal conduct and that of its employees,” the Treasury said, in exchange for deferring prosecution on criminal charges.