Construction Specialties to pay $660K in Iran sanctions case

A New Jersey-based wholesale building materials company agreed to pay more than $660,000 as part of a settlement with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) addressing three apparent sanctions violations in Iran.

Construction Specialties (CS) has 10 offices in the United States and 25 foreign affiliates, including Construction Specialties Middle East (CSME) located in the United Arab Emirates. CSME knowingly violated sanctions when it imported building materials from the United States, then reexported them to Iran, according to OFAC.

The penalty reflects the agency’s determination CSME’s apparent violations were egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed, OFAC said in its enforcement release Wednesday.