On Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced a $415,350 settlement agreement with COSL Singapore Ltd. (“COSL”). The parties settled a potential civil liability claim for 55 apparent violation of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 560 (ITSR), which took place between October 2011 and February 2013.
COSL is a Singapore-based subsidiary of a Chinese oil field service company. It has several offshore drilling oil rigs and enters into charter agreements with third-party drilling companies to allow those parties to use its oil rigs.
Between October 2011 and February 2013, the procurement specialists for COSL purchased at least 55 orders of supplies from vendors located in the U.S. that were specifically intended for export or re-export to oil rigs located in Iranian territory. These purchases were made despite some warning from U.S. vendors that the goods should not be shipped or re-exported to countries subject to U.S. sanctions, including Iran.
OFAC determined that COSL used its own subsidiary companies, COSL Drilling Pan Pacific (Lbuan) Ltd. and COSL Drilling Pan Pacific Ltd., to export or attempt to export the oil rig supplies from the U.S. to Singapore and the United Arab Emirates before re-exporting or attempting to re-export the supplies to oil rigs located in Iranian territory.
COSL has agreed to pay $415,350 to settle potential civil liability, which is a lot less than what the potential liability could have been for COSL. The statutory maximum penalty amount for the apparent violations is $13,750,000, and the base penalty amount is $923,000.
OFAC considered aggravating and mitigating factors in determining the settlement amount. Some of the aggravating factors included: (1) COSL is a large sophisticated company doing business throughout the world; (2) COSL did not have an OFAC compliance program in place at the time of the transactions; and (3) OFAC determined that the exportation or re-exportation aided in the development of Iran’s energy resources.
The mitigating factors included: (1) COSL did not have any prior sanctions history; (2) COSL took remedial action by instituting an OFAC sanctions compliance program; and (3) COSL displayed substantial cooperation throughout the investigation process.
Companies that are involved in international trade and conduct business in the U.S. or with U.S. companies should have an OFAC compliance program in place. If companies are in a situation where they may have violated Iranian sanctions programs (or other U.S. sanctions programs), full cooperation with OFAC is essential.
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