HP Accused of Illegal Exportation To Iran 287
AdamWeeden writes "According to research done by the Boston Globe, HP has been secretly using a third-party company to sell printers to Iran. This is illegal under a ban instituted in 1995 by then US President Bill Clinton. The third-party company, Redington Gulf, operates out of Dubai and previously stated on their web site that the company began in 1997 with 'a team of five people and the HP supplies as our first product, we started operations as the distributor for Iran,' though now the site has been changed to remove the mention of Iran. Has HP unknowingly been supplying Iran with technology or have they been trying to secretly get by the US government's export restrictions?"
Re:ummm ... printers? (Score:1, Informative)
These are general economic sanctions, not merely restrictions on military technology. The Clinton-era embargo bans all commercial and financial transactions with Iran.
Re:Oh dear god (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Oh dear god (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Are IT embargoes even possible? (Score:5, Informative)
So if HP quits selling to Iran, what's to stop them from buying from Turkey or England or India or Japan or China, and how could we ever pretend to know or that we could prevent it?
Absolutely nothing, and in fact, that is what already happens. Embargoes against Iran are impossible. During my last trip there, the shops were littered with pretty much the same consumer goods - both electronic and not - that you would find here in the States.
For goods produced by U.S. companies, there is always a middle-man involved. I am not 100% sure who, but from talking to several small-business owners over there, they get most of their U.S. produced goods through Italy. There is a big mark-up on hardware, however. You can expect to pay the equivalent of several hundred dollars more for a top-of-the-line graphics card by Nvidia, for instance.
I know you're not really discussing whether they are a good idea, but I can't help but share my two cents. The embargoes are about as retarded as the ones on Cuba are. The embargoes will never "punish" the Iranian government as they will always have enough wealth and power to get whatever they want from Dubai. The people who suffer are the citizens of Iran who actually LIKE the U.S. and want a friendly, normal relationship.
With the trade deficit being as high as it is, and with a huge market in Iran wanting U.S. made items, it really makes no sense to keep these restrictions, especially since they are getting it through third-parties anyway.
They already have the presses (Score:3, Informative)
Just before the islamic revolution, the Shah had acquired US made bank note printing presses, the exact same used to make US dollars.
So they can already make the most real fake notes.
And they can't buy it anywhere else (Score:3, Informative)
It's not like there was another country [wikipedia.org] a few thousand km away that made all sorts of IT products, including but not limited to printers, which just happened to want to buy exactly what Iran had a lot of [wikipedia.org].
Clearly, without US-made printers, the Iranian military is unable to function properly.
Re:eh hum.... (Score:5, Informative)
2007 estimates put the population of Iran at 70.4 million people, good for the 17th largest country in the world. Hardly a 'small' market
Re:eh hum.... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ahhh, HP LaserJet Printers (Score:3, Informative)
It means:
LOAD the Print Cartridge with LETTER sized paper
Turn in your geek card.
Re:eh hum.... (Score:1, Informative)
I can't imagine that the Iran market is big enough to justify the risk of getting caught. But that's just me.
Yeah, what can the country with the 18th biggest GDP in the world and 70 million people want with HP products.
Re:eh hum.... (Score:0, Informative)
WRT Iran,
It is among the most developed countries in the Middle-East and Central Asia, and definitely the one with the best-educated population.
Except Israel.
I mean, you did say "the one" with no additional qualifiers to dig out of the hole. There can be only one "one."
It is perhaps correct to except Israel, as what they've done in a half century is far more impressive than what the rest of the Middle East has done for a thousand years. By excepting Israel, you avoid embarrassing the rest.
Problem is, that puts you on the same side as those who are trying to except Israel by force.
Re:HPSetup SSID (Score:3, Informative)
Dear sir.
Look here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/716237.stm [bbc.co.uk] - I couldn't find the piece where they were mentioning the Gameboy hardware but I clearly remember it.
And this proves you're a stinky asshole :P - note the funny emoticon after the offending sentence.