H-P, With Carly Fiorina As CEO, Sold Computer Products To Iran, Violating Sanctions

As if we needed any further proof that 2016 GOP candidate Carly Fiorina will say or do anything to enrich or advance herself, we now have evidence that while she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard, her company sold millions of dollars of computer products to Iran in direct violation of U.S. sanctions.

Oops!

Fiorina, of course, like most of her fellow GOP contenders for the nomination, has described the Iran nuclear agreement as a “very dangerous deal” because she claims it opens up the Iranian economy without getting US inspectors sufficient access to Iranian nuclear facilities. Sounds kinda like she was already operating as if the Iranian economy had been opened up during her tenure at H-P.

Specifically, while Fiorina ran H-P, the company indirectly sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment — mostly printers — in Iran. Fiorina claims she didn’t know about the sales and didn’t violate sanctions laws. But these reports certainly make her look like a gigantic hypocrite when she levels criticism at the Obama Administration.

The United States has had sanctions in place against Iran since 1995,  and although H-P didn’t sell its products in Iran directly, copious amounts of  H-P products were sold there anyway. How was this possible?

In 1997, just two years after President Clinton banned trade with Iran, H-P struck a partnership with a newly formed company in Dubai to sell its products in the Middle East. At the time, the company, called Redington Gulf, had only three employees and its sole purpose was to “sell HP supplies to the Iran market. This is all according to Redington Gulf’s website and Rajesh Chandragiri, the administrative manager in Redington Gulf’s Dubai office.

Redington Gulf also kept offices and a service center in Tehran, and licensed Iranian retailers to sell H-P printers in their stores. As a direct result, one poll found H-P was the leading printer brand in Iran, with a market share of 41 percent.

Double oops!

So Ms. Fiorina, when she isn’t making outrageous claims about non-existent Planned Planned abortion videos, is also having to explain why her company sold products to a sworn enemy of the United States. In other words, she is nothing more or less than a garden variety rapacious capitalist who will do or say whatever is necessary to win or make money.

Dear Carly: No one trusts you. And you just gave us all another reason to reinforce why we don’t.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.

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