Posts Tagged ‘ofac’
The Bittrex Sanctions Settlement
Before we all rush into the weekend, compliance officers should take a look at that enforcement action against cryptocurrency platform Bittrex that was announced earlier this week. It offers some valuable lessons about building a sanctions compliance program on the fly and what regulators expect crypto firms to do for sanctions risk. The enforcement action…
Read MoreMore Lessons on Sanctions Programs
Anyone looking for systemic failures in sanctions compliance and how a company might rectify those issues, look no further than Toll Holdings and the settlement it reached with U.S. regulators on Monday. Toll, a freight forwarding and logistics business based in Australia, agreed to pay $6.1 million to the Office of Foreign Assets Control to…
Read MoreAnother Interesting Sanctions Case
Another week, another interesting sanctions enforcement action from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. This time we have a Hong Kong trading company fined $5.2 million for facilitating trade with a chemicals business in Iran — but also catching a break because the company had warned its employees repeatedly to steer clear of Iranian customers.…
Read MoreAirBnB Rapped on Cuba Issues
AirBnB has started off 2022 with a telling little enforcement action, paying $91,200 to the Office of Foreign Assets Control for failing to monitor how people were using the lodging platform to book visits in Cuba. OFAC announced the settlement Monday. The fine is insignificant considering that AirBnB reported $2.2 billion in revenue for its…
Read MoreOFAC’s Latest Warning on Distributors
A Texas company that sells video production technology has agreed to pay $190,000 to settle charges that it knowingly allowed its goods to be sold into Iran, in our latest example of sanctions compliance enforcement from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. OFAC announced the settlement last Thursday against NewTek, which sells live production and…
Read MoreSteel Firm’s Lessons on Sanctions Risk
Sometimes that third-party risk is a party mighty close to you. Such was the case with an Oklahoma steel manufacturer, which just paid $435,000 to settle charges that its chief engineer sub-contracted design work to an Iranian engineering company owned by the man’s brother. The company, Alliance Steel, agreed to pay the fine to the…
Read MoreOFAC Fines Manufacturer Over Iran Resellers
An Ohio business that manufactures pressure controls, switches, and sensors is our latest example of trade sanctions compliance gone wrong, and the steps a company should take to act on red flags before the business gets hauled in front of regulators. The business, Cleveland-based UniControl, agreed Monday to pay $216,000 in penalties to the U.S.…
Read MoreOFAC Hits Bitcoin Processor
The Treasury Department has slapped a $507,375 fine against a bitcoin payments processor for sanctions compliance failures that allowed transactions with parties in Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere — only the second such enforcement action ever taken over digital currency transactions, but probably not the last. The firm in question is BitPay, headquartered in…
Read MoreOFAC Dings Bank $8.5M on Sanctions
We have our first enforcement action of 2021 to review: an $8.5 million fine that the Office of Foreign Assets Control slapped against a French bank for sanctions violations related to Syria, with a detailed list of compliance reforms the bank implemented to avoid harsher penalties. OFAC announced the enforcement action on Monday against Union…
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