The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a $508,612,492 settlement with British American Tobacco p.l.c. ("BAT"). BAT, a London, England-headquartered tobacco company, has agreed to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations (WMDPSR) and the North Korea Sanctions Regulations (NKSR). The apparent violation of the WMDPSR arose from BAT's formation of a conspiracy to remit approximately $250 million in payments from a North Korean joint venture, through bank accounts controlled by blocked North Korean banks, to BAT's Singaporean subsidiary - in a manner that involved U.S. banks in clearing the transactions - between 2009 and 2016. The apparent violations of the NKSR arose from BAT's Singaporean subsidiary's use of the U.S. financial system to receive payments for its exports of tobacco to the North Korean Embassy in Singapore. This settlement amount reflects OFAC's determination that BAT’s conduct was egregious and not voluntarily disclosed.
For more information, please visit the following web notice, and settlement agreement.