Area entrepreneur agrees to pay $17 million for export, smuggling violations

SARASOTA — Entrepreneur Eric Baird, former owner and CEO of Sarasota-based package consolidation and shipping service Access USA Shipping, pleaded guilty to export violations and agreed to pay $17 million to the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

According to a statement, Baird plead guilty to one count of felony smuggling and admitted to 166 administrative violations of U.S. export control laws as part of a global settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. Baird, authorities contend, exercised some of the criminal activity after a top employee at his company warned him that is was against the law.