The University severed its ties with Allied Telesis Labs, Inc., a former corporate partner of the University with offices on Centennial Campus after it pleaded guilty to charges of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to Leah Burton, director of partnership development.
ATL was sentenced last week to a $500,000 fine and two years probation after violating laws forbidding business with Iran .
“We did not want to, as a University, be affiliated with the company, so we no longer collaborate in research relationships with the company and they also are no longer considered a University affiliate,” she said.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act “allows the president to regulate the conduct of business internationally under certain circumstances, a step which was taken with regard to Iran,” Attorney George E. B. Holding said in the release.
ATL is a subsidiary of Allied Telesis Kabushi Kaisha, a Tokyo company that deals with telecommunication systems, including the Multiservice Access Platforms, or iMAPS developed in Raleigh, the release stated.
“ATL’s guilty plea acknowledged that the corporation conspired with another to trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran in violation of the law,” the release stated. “Specifically, ATL and its related corporate entities conspired to land and execute a $95,000,000 contract with the Iranian Information Technology Company to rebuild and upgrade the telecommunications systems of approximately 20 Iranian cities, including Tehran.”
The locally-developed iMAPS, which can process large amounts of data at a time, were a large part of this deal, according to the release.
According to Burton, ATL has been on Centennial Campus since 2001, and still leases a privately developed building, not one from the University.
“They have a lease that’s not with us, but what we can control is whether or not we do collaborative research, whether or not we allow them access to some of the resources that they would get if they were a partner that we would want to be affiliated with,” she said.
There are 69 corporate and government partners, which also include non-profits, currently on Centennial Campus, Burton said.
The University worked with ATL, which was formerly known as Allied Telesyn Network, sharing resources and ideas, but Burton said the University did not want to be affiliated with ATL’s actions before they were sentenced last week at a district court in Elizabeth City.
“We would no longer consider them an affiliate to N.C. State University,” she said.
A representative from ATL could not be reached for interview.
