Sun Microsystems will pay US$291,000 to settle with the US Commerce Department over the sale of high-powered servers to China and Egypt. The China sale, which took place in 1997, involved a 14-processor E5000 server.
The server was shipped to Automated Systems in Hong Kong, but US investigators found it at the Changsha Institute of Science and Technology, which is involved in military research. The discovery placed Sun on the wrong side of a strict US export regulation that requires government approval of some high-powered computer sales.
Sun's US-based headquarters will pay US$269,000. Sun Microsystems China Ltd and Sun Microsystems California Ltd, both Hong Kong-based Sun subsidiaries, will pay US$11,000 each.