Amazon Agrees To Pay Treasury Department To Settle Allegations Of US Sanctions Violations

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN has agreed to a settlement with the Treasury Department for allegations of violating the United States sanctions programs.

What Happened

The e-commerce giant will pay $134,523 to the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control as part of the settlement. OFAC said it determined that Amazon shipped products to persons located in Crimea, Iran, and Syria between 2011 and 2018, going against the sanctions imposed by the financial intelligence and enforcement agency.

OFAC could have imposed a fine of up to $1 billion under the statutory limit. Instead, it agreed to the rather paltry sum, in comparison to Amazon's valuation, as it determined that "Amazon voluntarily self-disclosed the apparent violations and that the apparent violations constitute a non-egregious case."

The violations occurred primarily due to the Seattle-based company's automated sanctions screening processes failing to "fully analyze all transaction and customer data relevant to compliance with
OFAC's sanctions regulations," the federal agency said.

Amazon, in November last year, paid $467,000 to the Treasury Department to settle allegations of doing business with a banned entity, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Price Action

Amazon shares closed 3.3% higher at $3,182.63 on Thursday and added another 0.3% in the after-hours session at $3,193.00.