The Chicago Tribune reports in an article titled, “CEO pleads guilty to export charge”:
The chief executive officer of a suburban manufacturer and the company itself pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Chicago to trying to export polygraph machines to China without a license.
Lavern Miller, 79, the CEO and chairman of Stoelting Co. of Wood Dale, faces up to 16 months in prison, Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Havey said. The company could be fined up to $500,000.
After the U.S. Department of Commerce denied the company a license to export five polygraphs in 1999, Miller admitted he tried to route the machines through a business associate in Italy. But United Parcel Service notified the Commerce Department.
The machines eventually were to be sold to law enforcement authorities in China, but U.S. officials denied the license because of China’s history of human-rights abuses, Havey said.
For discussion of this article, see the AntiPolygraph.org message board thread, Polygraph Maker Guilty of Export Violation.