New Year’s Resolutions

Speaking of compliance, here are two businesses that ended the year resolving charges they violated U.S. trade sanctions by dealing with blocked countries, people, or entities.

Both cases show how the government enforces its sanctions regime, and they illustrate how an ounce of prevention can beat a pound of cure. Both cases were brought by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, which is an agency within the Department of Treasury.

The first case concerns a dental-supply company that agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle charges that it violated the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations. The government alleged that, from the end of 2009 through the middle of 2012, the company exported 37 shipments of dental equipment to distributors in other countries knowing, or having reason to know, they would end up in Iran.

According to the government, it wasn’t an egregious case because the exports were likely eligible for a license if the company had only applied for one. But it didn’t, and that ended up costing it a lot more on the back end.

The second case concerns a luxury-goods company that agreed to pay $300,000-plus to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations. The government alleged that, from October 2010 to April 2011, the company exported four shipments of jewelry to a Hong Kong entity that was on OFAC’s list of blocked persons and interests. The blocked entity’s name and address squarely matched those of the ship-to party, but the company didn’t flag the transaction before shipping the goods.

According to the government, this wasn’t an egregious case either, but if you add up the settlement costs and legal fees, it sure does eat into the margin.