A U.S. manufacturing company disclosed it may have violated U.S. sanctions on Iran, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, H.B. Fuller, said it voluntarily disclosed the possible violations to the Treasury Department in September 2018 after discovering its subsidiaries in Turkey and India may have sold its products to customers who then resold them to Iran. The possible violations began in Turkey in 2011 and in India in 2014, the company’s Sept. 27 filing said, and involved the resale of “hygiene products.”
OFAC
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) administers and enforces various economic and trade sanctions programs. It sanctions people and entities by adding them to the Specially Designated Nationals List, and it maintains several other restricted party lists, including the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List, which includes entities subject to certain investment restrictions.
It may only be a matter of time before countries create a trade payment system to avoid U.S. sanctions, said David Mortlock, a trade lawyer and senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Sept. 10 that “strengthens and expands” the State and Treasury departments' sanctions authorities against terrorists, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a notice. Among several changes, the order allows the U.S. to impose “correspondent account or payable-through account sanctions” on foreign banks that “knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction” for a U.S. sanctioned global terrorist, OFAC said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a shipping network that moves hundreds of millions of dollars of oil for Iran, Treasury said in a Sept. 4 press release. The network includes dozens of ship managers, ships and “facilitators” overseen by Rostam Qasemi, a senior Iranian military official and the country’s former minister of petroleum. The sanctions target 16 entities, 10 people and 11 ships.
A trade credit insurer will settle for about $345,000 after it violated the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an Aug. 16 enforcement notice. The company, Maryland-based Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, allegedly completed transactions with sanctioned entities.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control is holding its 2019 Fall Symposium on Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C., OFAC said in an Aug. 14 notice. The symposium will feature a “comprehensive review” of U.S. sanctions and OFAC staff will be available to answer questions, the agency said. Registration is open, but the agency has not yet released an agenda. According to the webpage for the event, the agenda will be made available at the event.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control found a U.S. company in violation of OFAC’s Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations for failing to provide information about a sale to Iran after being subpoenaed, OFAC said in an Aug. 8 enforcement notice. The violations stem from Southern Cross Aviation’s sale of helicopters to an Iranian businessman in Ecuador, OFAC said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said a Virginia-based company violated OFAC’s Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations after providing the agency false or misleading statements during an OFAC investigation, according to an Aug. 8 enforcement notice. The violation stems from DNI Express Shipping Company’s sale of farm equipment to Sudan, which OFAC said violated the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.
President Donald Trump and the Department of the Treasury announced new Iran sanctions that target the country’s supreme leader and eight senior military officials, the White House said June 24.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a “finding of violation” against U.S.-based State Street Bank and Trust Co. (SSBT) after it violated U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran, OFAC said in a May 28 notice. The bank was not fined, OFAC said, partly because the bank’s managers were likely unaware of the violations and because the bank cooperated with OFAC and improved its compliance program.