One distributor in Dubai shipped goods to Iran, flouting the rules of its contract. (Pera quickly dropped him.) The U.S. Department of Commerce issued Ubiquiti a warning letter asking the company to upgrade its systems so it can better track where shipments are going.

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When the distributor, a much larger company that owned one of Britain's biggest printing plants, backed out of their contract and stopped distribution of his magazines, Desmond took his business directly to retailers and threatened to sue.

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