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OFAC Update
by Mary Beth Guard
Guru BIOS
Ever wonder how effective OFAC really is at targeting and controlling assets of sanctioned countries, drug traffickers, and terrorists and how active OFAC is in pursuing violations? In testimony before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation on June 16, 2004, OFAC Director R. Richard Newcomb indicated:
OFAC's hotline averages 1,000 calls per week with at least $1 million and sometimes as much as $35 million in appropriately interdicted items each week.
In one recent case, OFAC worked with a US bank to block a wire transfer for close to $100,000 originating from a suspect and going to an organization associated with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization which OFAC had named.
Over the past five years, OFAC has issued 4,250 administrative subpoenas, 3,500 warning letters, and hundreds of referrals for enforcement or civil penalties action.
Since 1993, OFAC has collected nearly $30 million in civil penalties for sanctions violations.
OFAC has processed more than 8,000 matters since 1993.
An automated system to report enforcement actions is being developed by OFAC, and its compliance division is building new customer interaction capabilities, which will include an automated telephone system and improved Web forms. One of the objectives is to allow detailed live transaction to be transmitted via the Web to OFAC for real time analysis and response.
In the works is an SDN database to allow enterprise-wide access to declassified target information and a DataMart feature that will allows users of the OFAC list to more easily shop for information tailored to their specific compliance needs.
OFAC plans to publish treatises on its Website that discuss OFAC's licensing practices with regard to various categories of commercial and financial transactions.
The original version appeared in the June 2004 edition of the Oklahoma Bankers Association Compliance Informer.
First published on BankersOnline.com 11/8/04
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