Enforcement Release: August 11, 2020
OFAC Settles with an Individual with Respect to Potential Civil Liability for Apparent Violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations
A natural U.S. person (“U.S. Person-1”) has agreed to pay $5,000 to settle their potential civil liability for engaging in at least 24 transactions for the benefit of a foreign individual who at the time was a specially designated narcotics trafficker. The apparent violations arose out of a personal relationship that U.S. Person-1 maintained with the specially designated narcotics trafficker while U.S. Person-1 was stationed overseas at a U.S. embassy.
Description of the Apparent Violations and the Conduct Leading to the Apparent Violations
At the time of the apparent violations, U.S. Person-1 was a civilian direct hire of the U.S. Army and stationed in the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia (the “embassy”). U.S. Person-1’s position at...
1) For a civil enforcement action, this is an extremely unusual case for a number of reasons. We first note that this is the first civil enforcement action that is solely against an individual (see An Unnamed Individual (16) (2004)). It is also the first civil enforcement action brought against a person employed by the U.S. government at the time of the alleged violations.
The case is also extremely unusual from a factual standpoint. The activities that resulted in the enforcement action appear to be wholly non-commercial in nature, which itself is quite rare. The provision of material goods to a blocked person is generally a clear violation of the blocking prohibition, but in this case the facts strongly suggest that the U.S. person at issue was involved in a romantic relationship with the blocked person (jewelry, hotel rooms...), and in any...