Pratt & Whitney Settles Charges of
Illegal Transfers of Technology

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced that Pratt & Whitney (Pratt) of East Hartford, Connecticut, agreed to pay a $150,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it committed 42 violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) when it exported controlled items without licenses.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) charged that between August 1998 and September 1999, Pratt failed to obtain the required Department of Commerce export licenses for controlled technical data relating to material coating and gas turbine engine components.

Some of the charges stemmed from violations of the “deemed export” provisions of the EAR for releasing controlled technology to foreign nationals from various countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The “deemed export” provision of the EAR states that an export license is required to release technology to a foreign national in the United States if a license would be required to export that technology to his/her home country.

BIS also charged Pratt with failing to obtain the required licenses for exports to China, Japan, and Singapore.

Pratt voluntarily self-disclosed the violations and cooperated fully with the investigation.

Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Julie L. Myers commended Special Agent Jim Brigham of BIS’s Boston Field Office for his efforts in this investigation.