The Directorate of Defense Control’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System will be unavailable Sept. 28 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. EDT for system updates and maintenance, the DDTC said Sept. 25. Users will not be able to submit Advisory Opinion or Commodity Jurisdiction requests during the outage. DDTC said the time window for the maintenance may change. Questions or concerns should be directed to the DDTC Help Desk at (202) 663-2838 or dtradehelpdesk@state.gov.

L3 Harris Technologies reached a $13 million settlement with the State Department for violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to an order released Sept. 23 by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. The violations by Harris Corporation, a technology and defense contractor, occurred before it officially merged in July with L3 Technologies, an aerospace and defense company.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls IT Modernization team is updating the third-party function of its Defense Export Control and Compliance System (DECCS) application, the DDTC said Sept. 16. The changes, which take effect Sept. 20, will require third-party users to “use a dedicated account to access a company’s information,” the DDTC said. If users need “access to multiple companies” as a third party, they can register “multiple accounts using unique email addresses,” the DDTC said. Questions should be directed to the Defense Trade Application System help desk at dtradehelpdesk@state.gov or (202) 663-2838.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 9-13 in case they were missed.

An interim final rule involving International Traffic in Arms Regulations definitions for activities that aren’t classified as exports, re-exports or transfers is under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the OIRA said in a Sept. 10 notice. The rule aims to amend the ITAR to create definitions for several activities, including launching items into space, “providing technical data” to U.S. people either in the U.S. or in a “single country abroad,” and moving defense goods between U.S. states, according to the OIRA. The definitions would also remove requirements related to the “electronic transmission and storage of unclassified technical data via foreign communications infrastructure when the data is secured sufficiently to prevent access by foreign persons,” the OIRA said.

Robert Monjay, previously the acting co-division chief of the Technology and Jurisdictional Analysis Division in the State Department Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, joined Akin Gump as senior counsel in the international trade practice, the law firm said in a news release. "Monjay is a former State Department policy official responsible for the application, amendment and interpretation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)," the firm said. "He held similar responsibilities while previously serving as a policy official in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security."

Commerce revoked export privileges for Sammy Smith, who was convicted in 2018 of violating the Export Control Act after trying to illegally export firearms components from the U.S. to Turkey, Commerce said in an Aug. 30 notice. Smith tried to export several items on the U.S. Munitions List, including “glock pistol upper receivers, barrels and recoil springs, Lone Wolf pistol upper receivers with matching barrels and a Beretta PX4 pistol short barrel,” Commerce said. Smith was sentenced to two months in prison, six months of supervised release and a $100 fine, the notice said. Commerce revoked Smith’s export privileges for seven years dating from his July 9, 2018, conviction.

The State Department is removing certain “lower performing radars” from the U.S. Munitions List and is extending for two years a temporary modification to Category XI, the State Department said in a notice in the Federal Register.

Violations of the Arms Export Control Act require knowledge that the unlicensed exports were unlawful, and not just that the exporter knew their general conduct was illegal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in an Aug. 20 decision. Vacating the conviction of a forwarder for Arms Export Control Act violations, the appeals court held that the lower court’s jury instructions were not specific enough and could have been misinterpreted to include knowledge of import violations in another country.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls rescheduled its In-House Seminar from Sept. 18 to Oct. 9 due to scheduling conflicts, the DDTC said in an Aug. 22 notice. DDTC is extending registration for an additional week, but remains "first-come, first-served." Questions should be directed to DDTCInHouseSeminars@state.gov.