Carly Fiorina Was CEO Of HP When They Violated U.S.-Iran Sanctions, Sold Printers To Iran

Some are questioning Carly Fiorina’s position that she would be tough on Iran as old skeletons in her closet reveal she may have benefited from illegal transactions with the country. In fact, reports indicate that the Republican presidential hopeful was CEO of Hewlett-Packard when the company violated U.S.-Iran sanctions by selling printers to the troubled nation through a third-party out of Dubai. The company sold so many printers to the sanctioned Middle Eastern country that it held a 41 percent total market share in Iran during Fiorina’s time as CEO.

NBC News reports that Carly Fiorina’s poll numbers are soaring after many felt she won the latest Republican presidential debate. However, many are wondering if her dark past with HP will eventually become her downfall. During her time as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the printer company was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for selling printers to Iran through a third-party in Dubai.

HP’s dealings with Iran are making some question Fiorina’s hard-nose position on the Iran nuclear deal. Fiorina has stated numerous times that agreement secured by the Obama administration is “very dangerous” as it opens up the economy in Iran, Vox reports.

“It opens up the Iranian economy without getting US inspectors sufficient access to Iranian nuclear facilities.”

However, her concern for the opening up of the Iran economy through transactions with United States business seems to be a stark contrast to her time as CEO with HP as the company was selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of HP printers to the embattled region.

Fiorina has maintained that she had nothing to do with the HP dealings in Iran and that no sanctions were violated. She claims she didn’t personally know about the sales and that she violated no U.S.-Iran sanctions. Despite her claims, the Boston Globe reported on the HP-Iran controversy back in 2008 and it continued to haunt Fiorina during her failed 2010 Senate campaign.

The Boston Globe explained that though HP did not sell the products directly to Iran, instead they circumvented sanctions by utilizing a Dubai-based three-man company to do the dirty work for them.

“In 1997, two years after President Clinton banned trade with Iran, HP 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,” says a history on Redington Gulf’s website and Rajesh Chandragiri, the administrative manager in Redington Gulf’s Dubai office.”

Do you think Carly Fiorina’s past with Hewlett-Packard will haunt her campaign? Should the CEO have known about the dealings with Iran?

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