Accusation: The proposed levying of high fines may create the opportunity for the government to exert pressure on Hungarian media.
The levying of the fines, potentially totaling more than $18 million a year but unlikely to be paid, added tension to Russian-American relations, which have become strained over the past year.
Money laundering has been a major concern of federal regulators in the last decade, even before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and bank regulators have levied plenty of fines against banks for their lax compliance and monitoring programs.
An Air India spokesman, K. Swaminathan, said the levying of the fine was an old issue.
Given the minor scale of the FCRA infringements, Greenpeace expected only raps on its knuckles or, at worst, a levy of small fines.
Also, the CFTC has wide authority to write new rules governing evasion and it can levy an assortment of fines and penalties on those who purposely don't comply with the law.
President Kirchner has a nasty history of levying fines and criminal charges against economists who will report accurately instead of following the government lie.
Since the work on the cottage took place more that three years ago, there is little the State Ethics Commission can do in terms of levying fines.
The F.C.C. also said yesterday that it had directed its enforcement bureau to begin investigating the possibility of levying fines on the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, the Viacom unit that distributes Mr. Stern's program and broadcasts it on 18 of its stations.
