Too busy paying attention to her business to vote; and today we find out that Fiorina allegedly oversaw an HP printer expansion in the Middle East, and in Iran.

From the Mercury News this morning:

Over the past dozen years, Hewlett-Packard has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of printers and other products to Iran through a Middle East distributor, sidestepping a U.S. ban on trade with the country.

Now the person who headed HP for much of that time, Carly Fiorina, is ramping up to run for U.S. Senate. And questions are emerging about what Fiorina knew about HP’s growing presence in Iran during her six-year tenure at the Silicon Valley firm from 1999 to 2005.

Iran has drawn world-wide criticism for its ramping up (or simple threats) of nuclear weapons and energy capabilities. The United States has had a standing trade embargo against Iran.

Did the former CEO know that her company was selling its wares to Iran through a European subsidiary and then a Middle Eastern distributor while she was at the helm?

If an HP executive had such direct knowledge, that would violate the trade embargo.

“It is illegal for American companies to do business in Iran,” the spokeswoman, Beth Miller, wrote. “To her knowledge, during her tenure, HP never did business in Iran and fully complied with all U.S. sanctions and laws.”

Read more of the story today at the Mercury News.

Carly Firoina now has two major hurdles to clear in her race for US Senate: She didn’t vote in 13 of the last 18 elections in California, and it seems that she oversaw HP’s expansion of printers into Iran; either ignored the trade embargo, or she didn’t care enough to address the issue.

There is a third possibility; she never knew it was transpiring – but that answer is worse than the previous two.

Firorina was fired from HP and the criticism has been that she was a terrible CEO, destroying HP in the process. The claim is obviously debatable, but replying that you “didn’t know your printers were being sold in Iran” will be an impossible answer in the face of the “Carly Fiorina was a terrible CEO” charges.

She either knew, and thought what HP was doing (selling through a middleman) was a legal manuever – side-stepping  the embargo by using a third party, or she didn’t know about the trade embargo to begin with.

Either way – if this charge sticks – it will be a hard one for Fiorina to clear during the primary, as well as the general election against Barbara Boxer.