OFAC settles with global money services business for alleged sanctions violations

Financial Crimes OFAC Department of Treasury Settlement Of Interest to Non-US Persons

On June 7, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced an approximately $400,000 settlement with a global money services business for alleged violations of the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (GTSR). The settlement resolves potential civil liability for the money services business' processing of certain transactions totaling roughly $1.275 million. According to OFAC, the transactions were paid out to third-party, non-designated beneficiaries who collected their remittances from a company in Gambia that OFAC designated pursuant to the GTSR in December 2010.  Notwithstanding this designation, the money services business continued processing payments to the company until March 2015. In arriving at the settlement amount, OFAC considered various mitigating factors, including the fact that the money services business voluntarily self-disclosed the issue to OFAC. OFAC also considered various aggravating factors, including that the money services business could have identified that the company was a sanctions target with the exercise of reasonable due diligence.