OSFI
On June 20th, 2016, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) released the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC’s) Al-Qaida and Taliban Regulations (UNAQTR) update to the sanctions list, removing one individual.
The assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo, set out in paragraph 2 of Security Council resolution 2253 (2015), no longer apply to the individual. The review pursuant to Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) was concluded on July 30th, 2009, which is almost seven years ago. For further information about the process for removing individuals and entities from the UNAQTR List, pursuant to a decision by the UN Security Council Committee, may be found in the “Press Releases” section on the Committee’s website.
Go to OSFI’s release of the UNAQTR update on the OSFI page.
Go to the United Nations Security Council Committee’s page on “Delisting”.
OFAC
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Branch, The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), released two updates last week. One update involved the agreement to to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations. The second update was the addition of a single individual to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Designations list.
OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals. The sanctions target countries, regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the U.S.
The OFAC penalty settlement amount for violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations was $107,691.30 USD. The stated violations are as follows:
- On or about April 15, 2011, the company appeared to have violated the Regulations when it exported 3,600 medical products to its United Arab Emirates distributor with knowledge, or reason to know, that the goods were ultimately destined for Iran; and
- Additionally, on or about May 27, 2011, the company exported an additional 400 units of the same product to its United Arab Emirates distributor with knowledge, or reason to know, that the goods were ultimately destined for Iran.
OFAC determined that the company voluntarily self-disclosed the apparent violations, and that the company constitutes a non-egregious case. The statutory maximum civil monetary penalty amount for the apparent violations was $1,129,912 USD and the base civil monetary penalty was $159,542. The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s consideration of the following factors:
- The company acted willfully by exporting products to its foreign distributor with knowledge, or reason to know, that the exports were ultimately destined for Iran in apparent violation of U.S. law, editing its destination control statement at the request of its distributor, and continuing to conduct business with its distributor after receiving confirmation that the distributor had re-exported the products to Iran;
- The company’s former CEO and former International Sales Manager knew that the exports were ultimately destined for Iran; and
- The company did not have a sanctions compliance program in place at the time of the apparent violations.
The company took remedial steps, including the implementation of an OFAC compliance program; and cooperated with OFAC’s investigation and agreed to toll the statute of limitations for a total of 513 days.
See the Enforcement Action Report on OFAC’s website.
See the Democratic Republic of the Congo updates on OFAC’s website.
See OFAC’s recent actions page.
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