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The US Department of Treasury recently issued a statement to the effect that the Office of Foreign Assets Control had reached a settlement with Amazon. Amazon agreed to pay US$134 523 “for apparent violations of multiple OFAC sanctions programs”.
What exactly did Amazon do?
Amazon unintentionally delivered goods to sanctioned people – which they shouldn’t do. This was done for sanctioned individuals in Crimea, Iran and Syria. The e-commerce giant is also said to have delivered their service to “to individuals located in or employed by the foreign missions of countries sanctioned by OFAC.”
In addition to this, Amazon did not report these transactions in a timely manner after realising they had made the transaction;
Amazon would’ve fined much more harshly but the OFAC & Treasury said that wasn’t necessary since Amazon reported the violations themselves and the delivery of service was a result of a mistake, more than anything.
Where’s Zimbabwe in all this???!
Zimbabwe is mentioned in the section of the statement highlighting Amazon’s violations. Amazon is said to have accepted and processed orders from persons listed on “OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the “SDN List”) who were blocked pursuant to … the Zimbabwe Sanctions Regulations.”
How did Amazon slip-up?
According to the statement by the Treasury Department, Amazon’s automated sanctions screening processes failed to fully analyse all transaction and customer data relevant to compliance with
OFAC’s sanctions regulations.
A big deal?
All in all, this seems like a minor slip-up on Amazon’s behalf and it shouldn’t affect ordinary Zimbos (those who aren’t sanctioned) buying stuff on Amazon.
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