Export Business Owner Admits Attempting to Smuggle Goods Out of US Without License
Jorge Orencel, owner and operator of Maryland-based export business Sumtech, pleaded guilty on Dec. 17 to attempting to smuggle goods out of the U.S. without the required export license, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said. Sumtech, under Orencel's leadership. specialized in distributing "high technology laboratory devices," across the globe, but in particular to South America, Asia and the Middle East. Orencel was busted for shipping ionization chambers to Hong Kong, while telling the company he bought the chambers from that he intended to ship the goods to Argentina. Orencel also intentionally undervalued the chambers themselves, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
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The scheme began in 2016 when Orencel sent a Sumtech purchase order to an unnamed company for the ionization chambers and a fission chamber. Per an End User Statement sent on Sumtech letterhead, the ultimate destination was falsely listed as Argentina. In 2017, Orencel emailed a co-conspirator that he had received the ionization chambers but not the fission chamber. The unnamed company refused to make the fission chamber, which contains nuclear material, until Orencel agreed that the fission chamber would be transported via UPS SCS, a United Parcel Service shipping service, which would pick up the chamber directly from the seller, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Orenceil told a co-conspirator at this time that the vendor seemed to be getting suspicious and that he had of course not told the vendor that the unit is for Hong Kong.
In February 2017, law enforcement agents from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement, visited Orencel at his company, where they gave him copies of the export rules. At that point, he said he was "very familiar with U.S. export laws" and that he always obtained the necessary export licenses, the U.S. Attorney said. In March 2017, Orencel then shipped the ionization chambers to Hong Kong. He was later caught for, and admitted to, conspiring to get the fission chamber to Hong Kong by first having it shipped to him. The package was detained by law enforcement before it could be shipped any further, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Orencel faces up to 10 years in prison for attempted goods smuggling, and sentencing will take place on Feb. 22, 2022.