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.
Source » thefreeiranian