The other Sean Byrne doesn’t exist

另一个“肖恩·伯恩”并不存在

Earlier this year Apple denied me access to App Store Connect after deciding that I matched someone on a U.S. government restricted-party list. Their explanation was fairly definitive: “The information you provided fully matches one or more restricted parties on the U.S. government consolidated screening list or another government’s sanctions list.” 今年早些时候，苹果公司拒绝了我访问 App Store Connect 的权限，理由是我与美国政府限制名单上的人员匹配。他们的解释非常明确：“您提供的信息完全符合美国政府综合筛查名单或其他政府制裁名单上的一个或多个受限方。”

They already had my passport. I replied with my full legal name, Sean Joseph Byrne, uploaded my driver’s license, and pointed out the address on the government record they appeared to be matching me against. I’ve never lived at that address, never lived in County Sligo, and have no connection to the company involved. I asked them to escalate it to their sanctions compliance folks and make a proper non-match determination. Apple still hasn’t replied. 他们当时已经掌握了我的护照信息。我回复了我的完整法定姓名 Sean Joseph Byrne，上传了我的驾照，并指出了政府记录中他们似乎用来与我进行匹配的地址。我从未住在那个地址，从未在斯莱戈郡（County Sligo）居住过，也与涉事公司没有任何联系。我要求他们将此事升级给制裁合规部门，并做出正确的“非匹配”认定。但苹果至今未予回复。

Search the U.S. government’s Consolidated Screening List for Sean Byrne and you get exactly one result: Sean Byrne, Cloonmull House, Drumcliffe, County Sligo, Ireland. Source: Entity List, Bureau of Industry and Security. Added: July 21, 2009. License requirement: All items subject to the EAR. License policy: Presumption of denial. 在美国政府的“综合筛查名单”中搜索“Sean Byrne”，你会得到唯一的结果：Sean Byrne，Cloonmull House, Drumcliffe, County Sligo, Ireland。来源：工业与安全局（BIS）实体清单。添加日期：2009年7月21日。许可要求：所有受《出口管理条例》（EAR）管辖的物品。许可政策：推定拒绝。

The Consolidated Screening List isn’t itself a sanctions list. It’s a U.S. government screening tool that combines a number of export-control, sanctions and other restricted-party lists maintained by the Departments of Commerce, State and Treasury. The result comes from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List. “All items subject to the EAR” means the Export Administration Regulations, the rules governing what U.S. companies can ship abroad. “Presumption of denial” is a licensing posture: if someone applies for a licence to export something to this person, the default answer is no. That’s the entire purpose. It’s an export-control instrument but it says nothing about who can be employed, or who can sell shares. “综合筛查名单”本身并不是一份制裁名单。它是一个美国政府的筛查工具，整合了商务部、国务院和财政部维护的多项出口管制、制裁及其他受限方名单。上述结果来自商务部工业与安全局的“实体清单”。“所有受 EAR 管辖的物品”指的是《出口管理条例》，即规范美国公司向海外运输物品的规则。“推定拒绝”是一种许可立场：如果有人申请向此人出口物品，默认的回答就是“不”。这就是它的全部目的。它是一种出口管制工具，但并未规定谁可以被雇佣，或谁可以出售股票。

The person in the search result isn’t me. More interestingly, it doesn’t appear to be anyone. The entry came out of the prosecution of an Irish aircraft-parts business called Mac Aviation. In 2009, the Department of Justice described Sean Byrne as Mac Aviation’s commercial manager and charged him alongside Thomas and Sean McGuinn over the illegal export of U.S. aircraft equipment to Iran. 搜索结果中的那个人不是我。更有趣的是，这个人似乎根本不存在。该条目源于对一家名为 Mac Aviation 的爱尔兰飞机零部件企业的起诉。2009年，美国司法部将 Sean Byrne 描述为 Mac Aviation 的商务经理，并指控他与 Thomas 和 Sean McGuinn 一起非法向伊朗出口美国飞机设备。

Except Mac Aviation had apparently invented employees to make the company look bigger than it was. Mac Aviation was a father and son working out of a cottage on the edge of Drumcliffe village, Ben Bulben behind it. A Rolls-Royce official who came to visit was reportedly speechless. The company he had been selling helicopter engines to, and had taken for a global operation employing hundreds of professionals, was a house in Sligo. 但事实上，Mac Aviation 显然虚构了员工，以使公司看起来比实际规模更大。Mac Aviation 其实是一对父子在 Drumcliffe 村边的一间小屋里经营的，背后就是本布尔山（Ben Bulben）。据报道，一位前来拜访的劳斯莱斯公司官员当时目瞪口呆。他一直向其出售直升机发动机、并以为是一家雇佣了数百名专业人员的全球性企业，竟然只是一栋位于斯莱戈的民宅。

To keep up the impression of a much larger firm, the McGuinns signed documents with false names. Sean Byrne was one of them. John Mooney reported in the Sunday Times that the name appeared on so much company paperwork that the American authorities “became convinced Byrne existed and tried to indict him.” When DOJ filed a superseding indictment in 2010, replacing the original, Sean Byrne was no longer a defendant. The defendants were Mac Aviation and Thomas and Sean McGuinn. 为了维持公司规模庞大的假象，McGuinn 父子用假名签署文件。Sean Byrne 就是其中之一。John Mooney 在《星期日泰晤士报》上报道称，这个名字出现在太多的公司文书中，以至于美国当局“确信 Byrne 是真实存在的，并试图起诉他”。当司法部在2010年提交替代起诉书以取代原始起诉书时，Sean Byrne 已不再是被告。被告仅为 Mac Aviation 以及 Thomas 和 Sean McGuinn。

More importantly, the superseding indictment repeatedly describes Sean Byrne as an alias used by one or more co-conspirators. The phrase appears more than fifteen times, attached to specific invoices, emails and an ownership statement. Mac Aviation staff used the name with suppliers in the U.S. and customers in Iran. At some stage the U.S. government appears to have worked out that Sean Byrne wasn’t actually a separate person. And yet the entry in the Entity List survived. 更重要的是，替代起诉书多次将 Sean Byrne 描述为一名或多名共谋者使用的化名。这一表述出现了超过15次，附在特定的发票、电子邮件和所有权声明中。Mac Aviation 的员工在与美国供应商和伊朗客户沟通时使用了这个名字。在某个阶段，美国政府似乎已经意识到 Sean Byrne 实际上并不是一个独立的人。然而，实体清单中的条目却保留了下来。

Sixteen years later it still has no date of birth, passport number, middle name or other useful personal identifier. It’s basically a common Irish name, an address in Sligo and Ireland. Cloonmull House in Sligo was Thomas McGuinn’s home, and the indictment gives it as Mac Aviation’s registered mailing address. So the entry isn’t a record of a man in Sligo. It’s a name attached to somebody else’s house. And I’ve never lived in Sligo. 十六年后，该条目仍然没有出生日期、护照号码、中间名或其他有用的个人识别信息。它基本上就是一个常见的爱尔兰名字，加上斯莱戈的一个地址和爱尔兰这个国家。斯莱戈的 Cloonmull House 是 Thomas McGuinn 的家，起诉书将其列为 Mac Aviation 的注册邮寄地址。所以，这个条目记录的并不是斯莱戈的一个人，而是一个附在别人房子上的名字。而我从未在斯莱戈住过。

This has happened before. Years before I moved back to Ireland, I was selling stock through a tender offer when Nasdaq stopped my order after a background check returned a match on my name. Their Head of Account Management emailed me saying that the check had found a match associated with a previous incident and that he was confident it was a false positive, but compliance wanted additional proof of my California address. On the phone he gave me more detail and specifically asked me about Mac Aviation. I explained that I’d never had anything to do with the company, provided the extra documentation they wanted and the sale went through with an entertaining story to tell people. 这种情况以前也发生过。在我搬回爱尔兰的前几年，我通过要约收购出售股票时，纳斯达克在背景调查中发现我的名字匹配到了记录，从而拦截了我的订单。他们的账户管理主管给我发邮件说，调查发现了一个与之前事件相关的匹配项，他确信这是一个误报，但合规部门需要我提供加州地址的额外证明。在电话中，他向我提供了更多细节，并专门询问了 Mac Aviation。我解释说我与该公司没有任何关系，提供了他们想要的额外文件，交易最终顺利完成，这也成了我后来讲给别人听的一个趣事。

More recently I ordered a Starlink mounting pole from California. DHL, shipping on behalf of SpaceX, told me the problem was a restricted-party match and asked for my passport. I sent it, they cleared it and the pole arrived. DHL also wouldn’t send a hat I’d ordered in the U.S. on to me in Ireland without a copy of my passport. 最近，我从加州订购了一根星链（Starlink）安装杆。代表 SpaceX 运输的 DHL 告诉我，问题在于“受限方匹配”，并要求我提供护照。我发送了护照，他们完成了清关，安装杆也送达了。DHL 甚至在我没有提供护照复印件的情况下，拒绝将我在美国订购的一顶帽子寄给我。

The fake Sean Byrne was associated with attempts to procure helicopter engines, fighter-aircraft parts and other U.S. equipment for Iran. The real Sean Byrne occasionally needs to produce a passport before someone will send him a hat. Apple is the odd one out. Nasdaq and the shippers both generated false positives, asked for enough information to resolve them, and then resolved them. Apple already had my passport, received my driver’s license and a fairly detailed explanation of exactly why the match was wrong, and still told me that I “fully” matched a restricted party. 那个虚假的 Sean Byrne 曾试图为伊朗采购直升机发动机、战斗机零部件和其他美国设备。而真实的 Sean Byrne 有时需要出示护照，别人才肯给他寄一顶帽子。苹果公司是个例外。纳斯达克和物流公司都产生了误报，但他们要求提供足够的信息来解决问题，并最终解决了问题。苹果公司已经有了我的护照，收到了我的驾照，以及关于为什么匹配错误的相当详细的解释，却仍然告诉我，我“完全”匹配到了一个受限方。