With the signing of the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 3199) on March 9, 2006, the basic civil penalty for violation of the sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which provided statutory authority for the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), has been raised from $11,000 to $50,000 per violation. In addition the sentence for individuals convicted of willful violations of the law has been increased from a maximum of 10 to a maximum of 20 years in prison.
These penalties may be imposed on parties that have inadvertently as well as intentionally violated the EAR and IEEPA sanctions listed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
In addition, even more dramatic penalties have been proposed by Rep. Henry Hyde under the Export Administration Renewal Act of 2005 (H.R. 4572) which would increase civil penalties for EAR and IEEPA violations to $500,000.