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compliance with the U.S. sanctions program by OFAC
Hi guys,
If you got this questions from your bank, what you will answer them ?
As a U.S. company, can you also share how you will ensure compliance with the U.S. sanctions program, enforced by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and ensure users are not accessing your site from sanctioned countries?
Thanks in advanced for help!
Comments
and ensure users are not accessing your site from sanctioned countries?
what? first time I heard of such a request. I've heard about not letting those countries order products and services from US Companies but that's all.
@zafouhar for this I come here :P
Use stripe and PayPal, let them handle it. For example, Iran citizens cannot use PayPal or stripe.
This does not mean they cannot use UK or US accounts to deal with the problem.
I don't think that's the concern of the vendor, though. For example, if I choose to purchase something for a friend in Iran, I'm the responsible party as opposed to the vendor that I purchase the item from.
I am not sure, the sanctions do not pertain only to payments, but to the services delivered too. If someone puts an Iran address and you deliver the services, regardless of who paid, then you are responsible, possible in conjunction with the payer, but I doubt, unless the payment is made to Iran directly, which, obviously, would not be the case here.
On the flipside, if they're on the Specially Designated Nationals list (the friend), which can happen as a result of doing business with sanctioned nations and the Treasury Department finding out, you can get in trouble.
Everyone who has the habit of delivering services when the customer's details don't match the payment details won't be in busyness too long anyway.
I like to inappropriately try to derail threads into arguments about politics and race, and I don't take the hint when my posts are removed. Thanks, @jarland, for correcting my ways.
Comment vanished thanks
Why not just remove Iran and other such countries from your order form, and let your fraud software block orders where the country does not match the IP?
They can still get around it by using a VPN, but it's not like you have to do a full investigation of each new client for a $7 VPS.
Your bank won't ask you that question, because people here don't have the kind of assets OFAC is looking for that's actually blockable, nor are people here wilfullly providing services to people on the SDN. I'm sure everyone's also subscribed to the official RSS feed, right? https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Documents/ofac.xml
Seriously though, OFAC doesn't enforce that much within the US in that manner, it will just go straight to the bank but if there's no wilful violation you won't find the issue of penalties very often. What usually happens is that OFAC enquires as to the assets of individuals not necessarily on their list but as a subagency of the Dept of Treasury but operating on a different mandate and emergency powers they enquire directly with foreign banks about people.... who usually aren't on the SDN since they covered them already. Some governments will simply tell them off since there's a presumption against extraterritoriality in the application of U.S. laws anyway - especially now that bright line rules have been set by the Supreme Court, the foreign bank is likely to be a step ahead of you anyway. In 09 when OFAC decided to knock on the door of Bank of China guess what happened, they said they didn't have any foreigners' accounts and closed all the foreign accounts and basically that allowed them to do business in America without having to get an OFAC audit. You can, by the way, still get a bank account from BoC today, if you're not Chinese, but they'll close your account if OFAC knocks on the door, but they don't do that very often.
Generally OFAC will deal with the bank directly and since they don't tell you ahead of time who'll be on the list if it's a specific person and you don't hold their assets - at worst they colo on your rack, but that's even unlikely - there's not much OFAC has the power to do block, nor can they impose penalties on non-wilfull violations. If you're the kind of person OFAC would fine, you're also either the kind of person who keeps contacts with the US to a minimal and do not bank here, or you're a massive idiot. Only the second is likely to post here.
They block bank accounts and merchants all the time, so yea, we all likely have assets that can be confiscated or limited. Any bank with international dealing is somehow connected to SWIFT or the US and can be influenced, and if it ain't connected it's a useless bank (see Iran the last 5+ years, cut off 98% from SWIFT/banking).
Yea, if you have a residence permit in the PRC or guangxi/connections. No idea why anyone wants a BoC account anyway, RMB is a useless currency and SG/HK offer much better banking, language and legal options - and you need to get the money into China....
Because no foreigner ever has been extradited from his own country to the US for prosecution, nooooo, that absolutely never happens. And the agencies are not kidnapping people with hot girls in Rome either, nah.