spacetoday.net: Boeing and Hughes reach settlement over export violations

Posted: Wed, Mar 5, 2003, 7:20 PM ET (0020 GMT)
The Boeing Company and Hughes Electronics have reached a deal with the US State Department regarding claims that the two companies illegally transferred sensitive technologies to China in the 1990s. Under the agreement the two companies will pay a $32 million fine, including $12 million in investments in technology transfer compliance measures within the two companies. The companies also agree to appoint compliance officers who are not employees of the companies to oversee any technology work with China and the former Soviet Union. The State Department filed the charges against the two companies in December, claiming that satellite manufacturer Hughes Space and Communications, now Boeing Satellite Systems, allowed sensitive technologies to fall into Chinese hands during the investigations of the failures of two Long March boosters carrying commercial satellites in the mid-1990s. Loral has faced technology transfer charges related to its dealings with China and reached a similar settlement in early 2002.