Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Danfoss A/S
12/30/2022
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a settlement with Danfoss A/S (“Danfoss”), a multinational Danish company that manufactures and sells refrigeration and other cooling products. Danfoss agreed to remit $4,379,810 to settle its potential civil liability for 225 apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, the Syrian Sanctions Regulations, and the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations. The apparent violations occurred when Danfoss FZCO, Danfoss’s wholly owned United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based subsidiary, directed customers in Iran, Syria, and Sudan to make payments to its bank account at the UAE branch of a U.S. financial institution. The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s determination that Danfoss’s apparent violations were non-egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed.
OFAC Notice
So… an 80% reduction from the base penalty, despite the disclosure not being voluntary (someone noticed it before Danfoss reported it) – and despite there being clear red flags that what the company was doing ran afoul of OFAC requirements. Even with the behavior being negligent rather than willful, that seems a bit generous – especially since there was no comment about proportionality (e.g. with ClearStream Banking’s settlement some years back).
Some way to end the year, huh?
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Categories: Civil Monetary Penalties Enforcement Actions Iranian Sanctions Sudan Sanctions Syrian Sanctions
Mr. Watchlist 
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