Freight forwarder AEL settled for $518,063 for illegally transhipping used and junked car parts through Iran to Afghanistan between 2010 and 2012.

Key Takeaways:

- Penalty amount spanned $1.54 million to $35 million. Various mitigating factors led to the reduced fine.

- A common misconception of export compliance rules is that only military or dangerous goods are controlled. Here, AEL received a fine for handling a shipment of car parts.

- The fact that this was a transhipment through Iran rather than a direct shipment to Iran accounts somewhat for the mitigation of the fine. However, as this case shows, illegal transhipments are subject to fine and must be prevented.