Microsoft To Pay Almost $3Mln For Civil Liability Over Sanctions Violations - US Treasury

Sumaira FH Published April 06, 2023 | 11:31 PM

Microsoft agreed to pay the US government almost $3 million to settle a potential civil liability for over 1,300 violations related to sanctions against Russia, Cuba, Iran, and Syria, the US Department of the Treasury said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2023) microsoft agreed to pay the US government almost $3 million to settle a potential civil liability for over 1,300 violations related to sanctions against Russia, Cuba, Iran, and Syria, the US Department of the Treasury said on Thursday.

"Microsoft has agreed to remit $2,980,265.86 to settle its potential civil liability for 1,339 apparent violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, the Syrian Sanctions Regulations, and the Ukraine-/Russia-Related Sanctions Regulations involving the exportation of services or software from the United States to comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions and to Specially Designated Nationals or blocked persons," the statement said.

The settlement amount reflects the determination, made by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), that Microsoft's conduct was non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed, it added.

The OFAC said in a separate notice, that between July 2012 and April 2019, the Microsoft Entities sold software licenses and provided related services from servers and systems located in the United States and Ireland to designated entities, people, and other end users located in Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Russia.

The total value of these sales and related services was $12,105,189.79, it added.

"Upon discovering the Apparent Violations, Microsoft undertook significant remedial measures and enhanced its sanctions compliance program through substantial investment and structural changes," the OFAC said.

In particular, Microsoft agreed to enhance its trade compliance program, to deploy detailed sanctions compliance training for certain employees, and implement other measures, it added.