Asian Stocks Rebound as Trump Delays Iran Strike Deadline 
U.S. Stock Futures Drop as Iran War Escalates, Oil Surges Past $115 
Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard in Merger Talks to Create World's Largest Spirits Giant 
Goldman Sachs Sees Value in European Real Estate Stocks Despite Sharp Selloff 
KPMG UK Cuts 440 Audit Jobs Amid Low Attrition and Cooling Professional Services Demand 
McDonald's and Restaurant Brands International Face Headwinds Amid Iran Conflict and Rising Costs 
Eli Lilly and Insilico Medicine Forge $2.75 Billion AI-Driven Drug Discovery Deal 
Oil Prices Surge Past $100 as U.S.-Iran Peace Hopes Collapse 
Luxury Car Sales in the Middle East Take a Hit Amid Iran War 
U.S. Jobs Market Eyes March Recovery Amid Inflation Pressures 
Bank of Japan Faces Rate Uncertainty Amid Middle East Oil Shock 
WTO Digital Trade Talks Stall as E-Commerce Tariff Deadline Looms 
Star Entertainment Secures $390M Refinancing Deal to Stabilize Operations 
Russell 1000 Companies Hit $2.2T Cash Record While Aggressively Reinvesting in Growth 
NASDAQ Tech Selloff: Correction or Collapse? What Analysts Are Saying 
U.S. Treasury Eyes Private Credit Oversight Through Insurance Regulator Talks 
Europe's Aviation Sector on Track to Meet 2025 Green Fuel Mandate 
Seagate Technology Holdings plc, an American data storage company, was hit with a heavy fine for allegedly maintaining a business relationship with the Chinese tech firm Huawei. The company has been asked to pay a total of $300 million as a penalty for the said offense.
It can be recalled that Huawei has been blacklisted in the United States in 2020, and Seagate seemingly ignored this fact and continued to have an unauthorized connection with the Chinese firm. They are said to have a business deal worth $1.1 billion.
According to CNBC, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the $300 million settlement with Seagate on Wednesday this week. The huge penalty was described as the largest ever to be imposed by the Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which implements export controls against blacklisted companies in the country.
Moreover, the local regulators said that Seagate was the only supplier of hard drive disks (HDD) the storage firm reportedly delivered more than 7.4 million units of HDD to Huawei from Aug. 2020 to Sept. 2021. The federal watchdog also noted that Huawei and Seagate also tried to conceal their relationship.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Seagate will pay $300 million to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The payments will be in installments of $15 million per quarter in the span of five years, and the first installment is due in October this year.
“We believe entering this agreement with BIS and resolving this matter is in the best interest of Seagate, our customers and our shareholders,” Seagate’s CEO, Dave Mosley, said in a press release. “Integrity is one of our core values, and we have a strong commitment to compliance as evidenced by our global team of international trade compliance and legal professionals – complemented by external experts and outside counsel.”
Mosley added, “While we believed we complied with all relevant export control laws at the time we made the hard disk drive sales at issue, we determined that engaging with BIS and settling this matter was the best course of action.”
Photo by Alex Escu/Unsplash
