Enforcement Release - BitPay, Inc

Ed. Note: if you’re new to TURBOFAC, please take note that the text string filtration function generally shouldn’t be used for terms such as “ordinarily resident,” “causing” or “new debt”. For research on the meaning of words and phrases such as those, i.e. terms central to the key legal issues in sanctions law that appear on a cross-programmatic basis, you’re typically better off locating and checking the appropriate box in the “Key Legal Issues” search category, which will limit the results to those that have been manually assessed as being relevant for the interpretation of the terms at issue.

Try typing your search term (“ordinarily resident,” “new debt,” or something else) in the “Find a Search Filter” box at the top of the page, and the corresponding “Key Legal Issues” check box will pop up instantly, if one exists. Once you check the box (e.g. “new debt,” with ~55 results), you can always use the text string filtration function to further refine your search (e.g. by typing “invoice” and narrowing the ~55 results to ~10).

Note in addition that the same applies to text string searches such as “14071” (if you’re looking for items related to EO 14071). By typing “14071” in the “Find a Search Filter” field up top, you will be able to instantly narrow the results down to items manually assessed as relating to EO 14071. Ditto terms such as “515.204” or “Iran General License G” (try the “Discrete Legal Provision” search category). Please contact [email protected] or [email protected] with any questions on search results and efficiency.

Please click "Apply Text String Filters" again after clicking the "Close" button immediately below.

TURBOFAC Commentary (331 words)

Notes:

1) Compare Civil Enforcement Information - BitGo, Inc., the first enforcement action concerning a U.S. person provider of internet services related to cryptocurrency. The primary difference is that, in the BitGo case, the primary customers of BitGo included sanctioned persons. In this case, BitPay’s primary customers were non-sanctioned merchants, but BitPay was still deemed to have exported financial services to sanctioned destinations when it processed cryptocurrency payments for its merchant customers that originated from sanctioned person purchasers. In this regard, OFAC appears to treat BitPay as it would an ordinary bank or credit card processor whose primary customers are businesses that receive payments from individual customers.

2) Query whether, in the event that the purchases at issue involved exempt or licensed activities, the cryptocurrency processing would be considered “ordinarily incident” to the underlying exempt or licensed transaction. In the...

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Enforcement Release - BitPay, Inc

TURBOFAC Commentary (331 words)