Whistleblower goes above, beyond in Construction Specialties OFAC case

The impact of “see something, say something” was on display as part of Construction Specialties’ (CS) settlement with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Wednesday for apparent Iran sanctions violations.

A whistleblower employee who came forward in the case overheard senior managers at CS Middle East talking about a “big job” with U.S.-origin goods, according to OFAC’s enforcement release. The managers dismissed the whistleblower for asking too many questions, but the latter refused to go quietly.

The whistleblower did not simply call a tip line or email someone at corporate—they flew to the United States from the United Arab Emirates and went to CS’s headquarters in New Jersey to raise the alarm. Talk about integrity.