International Trade Law News

Published by Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently issued its monthly penalty report resulting from enforcement actions taken against companies and individuals for allegedly violating the sanctions regimes administered by OFAC.

The monthly report indicates that OFAC settled cases involving 12 different corporations. Only one of the 12 cases resulted from a voluntary disclosure. Seven of the 12 enforcement cases that were settled involved banks. The following is a summary of the bank settlements (amount of the civil penalty is in parentheses):
--SunTrust Bank, Operation of Iranian accounts from 1995-2004 ($30,800.00)

--Bank of China, Sudan funds transfers in 2003 ($11,000.00)

--United National Bank, Cuba funds transfer during 2003 ($11,000.00)

--The Bank of New York, Libya funds transfers during 2003 ($5,844.87)

--Wachovia Bank, Libya funds transfer in 2001 ($5,500.00)

--Atlantic Bank, Sudan funds transfer in 2002 ($5,500.00)

--Bank of America, Iran funds transfer in 2003 ($2,760.00)

The following is a summary of the corporate settlements (all of the cases involved the sanctions on Yugoslavia, most of which were lifted in mid-2001)(amount of the civil penalty is in parentheses):

--Bax Global Inc., Exportation of goods to Yugoslavia in 1999-2000 ($22,815.00)

--Terex Corporation, Importation of services from Yugoslavia in 1999 ($7,000.00 )

--A.B. Company of Wisconsin, Importation of goods from Yugoslavia in 2001 ($1,094.10)

--WorldTrans Services Inc., Facilitation of trade with Yugoslavia in 2000 ($677.46)

--GHS Corporation, Exportation of goods to Yugoslavia in 1999 ($274.00)

OFAC also announced that it settled 62 cases involving individuals for engaging in travel-related transactions with Cuba for a total of $67,813.00 (average settlement of $1093.76)(OFAC does not publish names or amounts of individual settlements). In addition, OFAC settled 9 cases against individuals alleged to have engaged in both travel-related transactions with Cuba and importing goods from Cuba for a total of $17,119.00 (average penalty of $1902.11). Finally, OFAC settled one case for $575.00 against an individual for importing Iranian-origin goods in 2002.