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Japanese Businessman Sentenced to Prison For Illegal Computer Equipment Re-export (WASHINGTON) -- Japanese businessman Kiyoyuki Yasutomi was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to illegally shipping $1.4 million worth of computer equipment from Japan to Pakistan, F. Amanda DeBusk, Commerce assistant secretary for Export Enforcement announced. In the late 1980s Yasutomi's Tokyo firm, M.E.I. Japan, Inc., purchased U.S.-origin computer equipment from two U.S. suppliers which he re-exported to Pakistan without the required Department of Commerce authorization. At the time of the transaction, the export of this type of computer equipment to some countries was controlled because of nuclear proliferation concerns. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration Office of Export Enforcement Miami field office investigated the case. In 1991, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. obtained an arrest warrant for Yasutomi, who lived in Japan. He was arrested in July 1996 when he tried to enter the United States at San Francisco International Airport. The Bureau of Export Administration controls the export and reexport of dual-use commodities and technical data for reasons of national security, foreign policy, nonproliferation and short supply and enforces these controls.

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