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ITT Industries

Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (Criminal Prosecution)

Date: 03/27/2007 (Date of Guilty Plea)

Misconduct Type: Import/Export

Enforcement Agency: Multiple Agencies

Contracting Party: International

Court Type: Criminal

Amount: $100,000,000

Disposition: Pleaded Guilty

Synopsis: ITT Corp. agreed in March 2007 to pay $100 million and plead guilty to criminal violations of the Arms Export Control Act for allowing the transfer to China of classified night-vision technology. ITT, the Defense Department's leading manufacturer of night vision goggles, was accused of shipping night-vision technology and components without export licenses to an unidentified Singapore-based contractor who then shipped the technology to a Chinese optics firm around 2001. The $100 million penalty included a $2 million criminal fine, a $50 million deferred prosecution penalty (which is tied to the development of advanced night-vision technology), the forfeiture of $28 million to the United States as the proceeds of its illegal actions, and a $20 million monetary penalty paid to the Department of State. As part of the plea agreement, ITT also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement as to two other criminal counts. The government will defer prosecution of those counts for five years in return for ITT accepting full responsibility for its illegal actions and successfully implementing a remedial action plan. See related ITT Industries instances, "Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (State Dept. Administrative Proceeding)" and “Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (U.S. Army Compliance Agreement).”