Siemens agreed to pay a $175,000 fine for not disclosing two corporate felony convictions on a variety of Federal Communications Commission wireless license applications. The convictions stem from Siemens in 2008 pleading guilty to violating the accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act through bribery of foreign government officials and in 2007 pleading guilty to a federal charge of obstruction of justice in a civil matter, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in its Sept. 22 order (here). The failure to disclose "is particularly troubling because the underlying acts included misdeeds involving foreign telecommunications regulators," the bureau said, saying the consent decree includes that the two Siemens subsidiaries involved -- Siemens Corp. and Siemens Medical Solutions -- corrected the wireless application submissions on their own initiative and were fully cooperative with a bureau investigation afterward. Under the consent decree, the two also will develop and implement a compliance plan aimed at ensuring accurate future filing of wireless license applications, including a compliance manual and compliance training. Siemens didn't comment.
The exemption to Federal Communications Commission Form 740 filing requirements (see 1607070044) is based on the import date and not the date of entry summary filing, CBP said in a CSMS message (here). The FCC data must still be provided on the entry summary if the import date is before July 1, CBP said. That data isn't required for imports after July 1, it said. After July 23, ACE will no longer require FCC data regardless of date of import because of added system validations that will reject ACE transactions that include certain agency data, CBP said.
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The Federal Communications Commission published a guidance on the July 1 suspension of Form 740 filing requirements (here). The agency temporarily waived the Form 740 requirements until the end of the year for imported radio frequency devices due to the transition to ACE (see 1510200035). "This suspension only eliminates the filing requirements; all other requirements related to importation and to compliance with equipment authorization rules for radio frequency equipment continue to apply," the FCC said.
The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau approved a consent decree resolving its investigation of whether Icom America imported and sold marine radios in the U.S. that didn't include required public safety features. The rules require marine radios to “include the full range of features recommended by the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union to enhance emergency and safety-of-life communications from and between maritime vessels,” the bureau said in an order (here). Icom “admits that, by failing to include these features, its radios did not comply with the Commission’s rules,” the bureau said. Icom agreed to pay a $20,000 civil penalty and implement a compliance plan to prevent future violations, the bureau said. Icom didn't comment.
Mistaken changes to about 200 HTS codes led to transactions involving Federal Communications Commission data to be rejected, CBP said in a CSMS message (here). "CBP has corrected the HTS codes to properly include the FCC flags," the agency said. "Any transactions that [were] rejected should now be accepted upon submission."
The Federal Communications Commission fined a Chinese company $34.9 million for allegedly marketing 285 models of signal jamming devices to U.S. consumers. C.T.S. Technology marketed the devices through its Aiswa.com website, the FCC said (here). “These devices, which were advertised for sale to U.S. consumers, were designed to disrupt a variety of communications systems, including all major cellphone networks, Wi-Fi systems, and even Global Positioning System channels," said the forfeiture order approved by the agency's commissioners. “Some of the more dangerous devices were advertised as having the capacity to jam communications for a distance of over one-half mile.” The FCC said the company sold some of the devices to FCC investigators posing as consumers and shipped the equipment to the U.S. C.T.S. Technology didn't comment. When the fine was proposed, the FCC said it was the biggest in its history (see 14062016).
The ACE pilot on filing of data required by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is expected to end in June, said CBP (here), presumably opening up FSIS for full ACE filing. That will be followed in July by the end of ACE pilots on filing of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service “core” (i.e., non-Lacey Act) data and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) data. CBP has set a July 23 deadline for all entries and entry summaries under most entry types in ACE (see 1605200034). Pilots for APHIS Lacey Act, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data are already over, with filing now open to all.
Import data for goods regulated by the Federal Communications Commission can be filed through CBP's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) until July 1, when a waiver of FCC Form 740 requirements takes effect, the commission said Jan. 6 (here). The FCC issued the notice as a clarification of its plans to waive the requirements when the Automated Commercial System (ACS) is shut down and the use of ACE is required for electronic filing (see 1510190056), it said. "The Commission’s characterization in the Order of CBP’s ACS as the current system used for filing Form 740 information has been misinterpreted by some affected parties."
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