Maersk fined over Iran, Sudan shipments
Maersk Line Ltd. the U.S.-flag shipping arm of A.P. Moller Group, has paid more than $3 million to settle Treasury Department allegations it violated U.S. regulations for thousands of shipments for Sudan and Iran.
The allegations involved 4,714 cargo shipments originating in or bound for Sudan and Iran between January 2003 and October 2007. The transportation of cargo on vessels owned, operated and/or chartered by Maersk Line Ltd., but time-chartered or sub-time-chartered by MLL’s parent, A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S, on at least one leg of the cargo’s journey to or from Sudan and Iran.
“We recognize our obligation to follow U.S. trade sanctions, and we regret the violations,” MLL said in a statement.
Maersk Line operates foreign-flag services that call ports in Sudan and Iran, and the violations occurred when cargo going into or out of the two countries moved for part of their journey on MLL vessels. MLL vessels, for example have called on ports in Europe and Asia, and booking systems may have allowed containers bound for of coming from Sudan or Iran to be carried part of the way on MLL ships.
Saying the alleged violations constituted a “non-egregious case,” the Treasury Department's ‘s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed a fine of $3.09 million, 5 percent of the base penalty amount, $61.77 million for the apparent violations. The base amount was calculated based on gross freight charges from origination to destination.
OFAC said the lower settlement amount reflects the government’s consideration of several factors, for and against MLL, including:
' MLL is part of a commercially sophisticated worldwide shipping conglomerate with significant experience operating under licenses issued by OFAC and other federal agencies.
' The activities resulted in actual harm to sanctions program objectives by conferring an economic benefit on Sudan and Iran.
' MLL has not been found to have violated OFAC sanctions in the past five years.
' The company had substantially and fully cooperated with OFAC’s investigation.
' MLL and its parent company underwent substantial remediation to ensure that such alleged violations do not recur.
Mitigation of the base penalty was necessary, OFAC said, to ensure its “enforcement response is proportionate, particularly in light of the fact that the base penalty amount is based on gross freight charges for shipping the cargo from origination to destination and the apparent violations involved only a portion of those voyages.”
While MLL did not voluntarily self-disclose the matter, OFAC said MLL received substantial mitigation credit for providing it with volumes of well-organized data regarding its involvement in shipments to or from Sudan and Iran over a five-year period, agreeing to statute of limitations tolling agreements when requested.
Maersk Line said it has implemented a series of corrective actions to improve compliance monitoring in its global cargo management systems to prevent MLL ships from carrying such cargo in the future. It also said it had “rolled out a training program to make sure our colleagues understand and follow export control guidelines.”
MLL also agreed to what OFAC said were “substantial and effective remediation measures” in order to ensure that commercial actions taken by MLL affiliates would not cause MLL to violate U.S. economic sanctions.
OFAC noted this included changes to the global booking system in which MLL participates to ensure MLL’s compliance with U.S. economic sanctions programs. ' Chris Dupin
