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Enforcement Release: July 8, 2020
OFAC Settles with Amazon.com, Inc. with Respect to Potential Civil Liability for Apparent Violations of Multiple Sanctions Programs
Amazon.com, Inc. (“Amazon”), a Seattle, Washington-based company that provides retail, e- commerce, and digital services to millions of customers worldwide, has agreed to pay $134,523 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of multiple OFAC sanctions programs. As a result of deficiencies related to Amazon’s sanctions screening processes, Amazon provided goods and services to persons sanctioned by OFAC; to persons located in the sanctioned region or countries of Crimea, Iran, and Syria; and to individuals located in or employed by the foreign missions of countries sanctioned by OFAC. Amazon also failed to timely report several hundred transactions conducted pursuant to a general license issued by OFAC that included a mandatory reporting requirement, thereby nullifying that authorization with respect to those transactions....
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1) BASES FOR LIABILITY
a) The "Service" Export Prohibitions (Non-blocked Persons)
OFAC alleges violations of the Crimea, Iran and Syria embargoes in connection with the provision of goods and/or services "to persons located in the sanctioned region or countries of Crimea, Iran, and Syria." These are presumably all violations of the broad prohibition on the provision of services (and/or goods except in the case of Syria) to persons "in" or "ordinarily resident in" a given sanctioned destination. In this case, OFAC made no mention of the "ordinarily resident" standard, suggesting that the IP and/or physical addresses of the persons at issue were the basis on which to conclude that the recipient of the services was "in" a sanctioned destination. Compare Civil Enforcement Information - Standard Chartered Bank (Second Global Settlement).
b) The Reporting Requirement in