Amazon has settled allegations made by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over violations of sanctions programs. They have agreed to pay $134,523 to settle any potential liability.
OFAC is a branch of the Department of the Treasury that enforces economic and trade sanctions. They have the authority to impose controls on transactions and freeze assets under U.S. jurisdiction.
According to OFAC, between November of 2011 and and October of 2018, the Seattle-based online retailer provided goods and services to people in nations sanctioned by OFAC. These include persons either in or employed by the foreign missions of Crimea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan.
Amazon is also alleged to have accepted and processed orders from persons listed on the OFAC’s “List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDNs). These SDNs found themselves on this list for narcotics trafficking and weapons of mass destruction sanctions among others.
These transactions seem to be the result of a screening process failure on the part of Amazon. The process failed to properly flag relevant transactions and Amazon failed to review and assess the data as part of their screening process.
