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SEC probes major companies' Syria, Iran ties

AP

The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked at least a dozen U.S.-listed companies to fully explain their business relations - which were apparently undisclosed in some cases - with Iran and Syria, according to the Financial Times.

Among the companies being asked to provide the information are global giants including Sony, Caterpillar and American Express.

Click here for the FT article, which requires site membership

The article says the companies have conducted business with the countries, listed as "state sponsors" of terrorism by the U.S. government and heavily sanctioned as a result, in many cases by going through international subsidiaries which operate outside the confines of U.S. sanctions.

Repressive regimes using U.S.-made spy tech

As global outrage rises in light of the Syrian regime's crackdown on opposition protests, and an Iranian student siege on the British Embassy in Tehran, some U.S. lawmakers have pushed for the subsidiary loophole to be closed, according to the FT.

"The notion that a foreign subsidiary of a U.S. company can conduct business that would be sanctionable in the US ... undermines our efforts to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear-weapons capability," Rep. Howard Berman, the ranking Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, told the FT.

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