ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION FOR JANUARY 3, 2006
OFAC has entered into a consent Cease and Desist Order against the following company:
ABN AMRO Bank, N.V. Consents to Order of Assessment with Respect to Libyan and Iranian Program Violations: OFAC and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System have assessed a penalty in the amount of $40 million against ABN AMRO Bank, N.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands ("ABN AMRO"), which also will satisfy a penalty concurrently assessed by FinCEN in the amount of $ 30 million. The OFAC-related penalties were based on findings that ABN AMRO participated in transactions that violated the Iranian and Libyan sanctions. Between December 2001 and April 2004, ABN AMRO’s overseas branches removed or revised references to entities in which the Governments of Libya and Iran had an interest before forwarding wire transfers, letters of credit and U.S. dollar checks...
1) Factual details available at Settlement Agreement (OFAC) - ABN AMRO Bank, N.V..
2) Note that, at the time of this case, IEEPA contained no territorially limitless prohibition against "causing" a violation of U.S. primary sanctions. This required some creative charging that is one-of-a-kind up through 2019, and may not necessarily accord with OFAC’s current interpretation of some of the provisions at issue.
3) EVASION/AVOIDANCE
The basis for the settlement for the Libya sanctions was that—in addition to the U.S. bank dealing in Libyan Government property—the unwitting U.S. banks, in processing transactions for persons they presumed to not be sanctioned, had themselves engaged in transactions that had "the purpose or effect of evading or avoiding" the substantive provisions of the applicable regulations. The implication is that one...