The Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published today in the Federal Register an order denying export privileges to Super Net Computers, a Dubai-based computer retailer. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, or a computer scientist, to guess why — Super Net was transshipping U.S.-origin computer parts to Iran. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Dubai is just a short hop across the Straits of Hormuz to Iran and, not surprisingly, is the transhipment point of choice for goods being shipped into Iran in violation of the U.S. sanctions on Iran. Any exporter should exercise increased diligence when shipping goods to Dubai, and to the UAE, to insure that the goods don’t wind up in Tehran, which could lead to some pointed questions from BIS.

While searching the Internet to get information on Super Net Computers, we found a valuable asset to assist exporters in exercising that extra measure of care. There is a site called the “Iranian Business Directory Dubai” which bills itself as the “ultimate guide to Iranian businesses in Dubai.” And right there in that directory we found Super Net Computers, more or less advertising that any thing shipped to it would cross the Straits of Hormuz before you could say Ahmadinejad.

More than seven thousand other Dubai businesses — 7,222 to be precise — are listed on that directory, which makes the directory an extremely valuable resource. The “ultimate guide” indeed. Although not in the way we imagine it was intended.

Permalink