Seagate Hit With $300 Million Fine for Shipping 7.4 Million HDDs to Huawei

upstart writes:

U.S. government imposes record fine on Seagate for violating sanctions against Seagate:

Seagate has been hit with a massive $300 million fine by the U.S. Department of Commerce [PDF] for violating export control restrictions imposed on Huawei in 2020. The report shows that the U.S. Department of Commerce states that Seagate shipped millions of hard drives to Huawei in 2020 - 2021 and become the sole supplier of HDDs to the company while its rivals Toshiba and Western Digital refrained to work with the conglomerate.

Seagate shipped 7.4 million hard drives to Huawei on 429 occasions between August 2020 and September 2021 without obtaining an export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. Those drives were worth around $1.104 billion back then, a significant sum for Seagate, which revenue totaled $10.681 billion in 2021.

To settle the matter, Seagate has agreed to pay the $300 million fine in quarterly instalments of $15 million over five years starting in October 2023. The civil penalty of $300 million is more than double the estimated net profits that Seagate made from the alleged illegal exports to or involving Huawei, according to BIS. In fact, $300 million is a record fine for BIS.

"Today's action is the consequence: the largest standalone administrative resolution in our agency's history," said Matthew S. Axelrod, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement. "This settlement is a clarion call about the need for companies to comply rigorously with BIS export rules, as our enforcement team works to ensure both our national security and a level playing field."

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.