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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

OFAC Imposes Civil Penalty for Export of Medical Supplies to Iran

Sanctions OFAC

Federal Issues

On June 23, OFAC announced a $107,691.30 settlement with a North Carolina-based medical device company for apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 560 (the Regulations). Specifically, the company violated § 560.204 of the Regulations by exporting a number of its medical products to its United Arab Emirates distributor throughout April and May 2011 with the knowledge or reason to know that the products were ultimately destined for Iran. The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s consideration of the following aggravating factors: (i) the company acted willfully by exporting products it knew or had reason to know were ultimately destined for Iran, 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 reexported the company’s products to Iran; (ii) the company’s former CEO and International Sales Manager knew the products were ultimately destined for Iran; and (iii) the company did not have a sanctions compliance program at the time of the apparent violations. OFAC considered the following as mitigating factors when determining the settlement amount: (i) limited harm was inflicted on U.S. sanctions program objectives because OFAC likely would have granted the company a license to export the medical products to Iran, had the company sought permission to do so; (ii) the company had no prior OFAC sanctions history; (iii) the company took remedial steps, such as establishing an OFAC compliance program; and (iv) the company “cooperated with OFAC’s investigation and agreed to toll the statute of limitations for a total of 513 days.”