Caterpillar Raid Resurrects U.S. Sanctions Questions

In 2011, U.S. financial watchdogs began a campaign to lift the curtain on well-known companies' business dealings in Iran, Sudan and Syria, all then considered state sponsors of terrorism and subject to economic sanctions. Among the companies faced with demands from the SEC were Sony, Xerox, AIG, Siemens - and Caterpillar. By then, Caterpillar and its non-U.S. subsidiaries had ceased nearly all business in Iran, the comments continued. The company had been pressured to undertake those actions in 2010 by an activist group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). The group publicly shamed Caterpillar with a billboard outside its Peoria headquarters for working in a hostile state with nuclear ambitions. UANI complimented Caterpillar for the decision to terminate sales arrangements that provided equipment to end users in Iran. "We applaud Caterpillar's decision to prohibit its non-U.S. subsidiaries from doing business in Iran," said Mark Wallace, UANI president and former American diplomat to the United Nations. "All responsible companies that transact business in Iran through the veil of a foreign subsidiary should take this as a wake-up call."