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.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...