U.S. Software Company Discloses Potential Sanctions Violations
November 12 2019 - 5:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Mengqi Sun
Altair Engineering Inc. may have violated U.S. economic
sanctions and export control regulations, the company said in a
regulatory filing.
The Troy, Mich.-based engineering software company said it
discovered the possible violations in May and disclosed them to
regulators, according to the company's latest quarterly financial
report, which was filed last week with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
A representative for Altair declined to comment beyond the
regulatory filing.
Altair suspected an unaffiliated third-party consultant in
Poland may have provided proprietary software to an individual
subcontractor residing in Iran, according to a regulatory filing in
May that disclosed the potential breaches. The commercial software
involved was developed by a Greek subsidiary of Altair, according
to the May filing.
Altair said it conducted an internal investigation, and in July
it disclosed the results to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office
of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces U.S. economic sanctions,
and to the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and
Security, which administers export control regulations.
The company said in its filing last week that it reported to
regulators the unintentional transfers of commercial software and
trial software licenses to several individuals located in Iran and
other restricted countries. The transfers involved freeware, trial
software licenses and volunteer software testing communities, the
company said.
Altair said it didn't find any evidence of commercial
transactions with restricted parties or countries. The company also
said it implemented several compliance measures to prevent similar
transfers.
The Bureau of Industry and Security in August notified the
company of the conclusion of the agency's investigation and didn't
issue criminal or administrative penalties, Altair said.
A spokesperson for BIS didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment.
OFAC is still investigating the potential violations, Altair
said, adding that it doesn't expect investigations arising from the
self-disclosure to have a meaningful impact on its business or
operations.
Write to Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 12, 2019 16:55 ET (21:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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