WASHINGTON – As part of a combined $1.3-billion settlement with the federal government and state governments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced three separate agreements totaling $611 million with the following UniCredit Group banks: UniCredit Bank AG in Germany, UniCredit Bank Austria AG in Austria, and UniCredit S.p.A. in Italy.
The settlements resolve OFAC’s investigations into apparent violations of a number of U.S. sanctions programs, including those related to weapons of mass destruction proliferation, Treasury reported.
“Specifically, between January 2007 and December 2011, UniCredit Bank AG processed over 2,000 payments totaling over $500 million through financial institutions in the United States in apparent violation of multiple U.S. sanctions programs. During this time period, UniCredit operated U.S. dollar accounts on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and several companies owned by or otherwise affiliated with IRISL, and managed the accounts of those companies in a manner that obscured the interest or involvement of IRISL in transactions sent to or through U.S. intermediaries. For a number of years up to and including 2011 (UniCredit Bank AG) and 2012 (UniCredit Bank Austria AG and UniCredit Bank S.p.A.), all three banks processed payments to or through the United States in a manner that did not disclose underlying sanctioned persons or countries to U.S. financial institutions which were acting as financial intermediaries,” Treasury stated.
‘Proliferators of Weapons of Mass Destruction’
These transactions constitute apparent violations of contemporaneous sanctions programs targeting proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, global terrorism, and the following countries: Burma, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Syria, Treasury said.
“UniCredit Group banks routed transactions through the United States in a non-transparent manner, when those payments would have been blocked or rejected if their true nature had been clear, in violation of multiple sanctions programs,” said Sigal P. Mandelker, undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “These banks have agreed to implement and maintain commitments to enhance their sanctions compliance. As the United States continues to enhance our sanctions programs, incorporating compliance commitments in OFAC settlement agreements is a key part of our broader strategy to ensure that the private sector implements strong and effective compliance programs that protect the U.S. financial system from abuse.”
Pursuant to the settlement agreements, each bank is required to implement and maintain compliance commitments designed to minimize the risk of the recurrence of the conduct giving rise to the apparent violations.