PayPal, an electronic payments company, this week reached a $7.7 million settlement with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions violations. The civil penalties could have been significantly higher, had PayPal not self-reported the violations and cooperated with the government.
According to OFAC, PayPal for a period of several years processed 486 transactions totaling approximately $43,934 in violation of OFAC regulations governing sanctions programs. “PayPal failed to employ adequate screening technology and procedures to identify the potential involvement of U.S. sanctions targets in transactions that PayPal processed,” OFAC said. As a result of this failure, PayPal did not screen in-process transactions to reject or block prohibited transactions as required under U.S. economic sanctions laws.
