U.S. Treasury Department Fined ExxonMobil $2 Million For Sanction Violations

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury fined ExxonMobil Corporation $2 million for violations of sanctions while current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the company's Chief Executive Officer. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within the Treasury Department issued the fine. According to the announcement:

"Between on or about May 14, 2014 and on or about May 23, 2014, ExxonMobil violated § 589.201 of the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations when the presidents of its U.S. subsidiaries dealt in services of an individual whose property and interests in property were blocked, namely, by signing eight legal documents related to oil and gas projects in Russia with Igor Sechin, the President of Rosneft OAO, and an individual identified on OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.

OFAC determined that ExxonMobil did not voluntarily self-disclose the violations to OFAC, and that the violations constitute an egregious case."

During March of 2014, Russia officially annexed Crimea, a peninsula in the Black Sea, from Ukraine. Moscow retaliated by banning nine U.S. officials and lawmakers from entering Russia. Then, President Obama ordered more sanctions against two-dozen members of Putin's inner circle and against Bank Rossiya, the Russian bank supporting them.

During August of 2014, Russian troops invaded eastern areas of Ukraine along the country's southeast coast. Reportedly, Russian troops fought with pro-Russia rebels against Ukrainian military.

 The Treasury Department released an "Enforcement Information for July 20, 2017" document which stated in part:

"... ExxonMobil did not voluntarily self-disclose the violations to OFAC and that the violations constitute an egregious case. Both the base civil monetary penalty and the statutory maximum civil monetary penalty amounts for the violations were $2,000,000. OFAC thoroughly considered the arguments ExxonMobil set forth in its submissions to OFAC, and the penalty amount reflects OFAC's consideration of the following facts and circumstances... OFAC considered the following to be aggravating factors: (1) ExxonMobil demonstrated reckless disregard for U.S. sanctions requirements when it failed to consider warning signs associated with dealing in the blocked services of an SDN; (2) ExxonMobil's senior-most executives knew of Sechin's status as an SDN when they dealt in the blocked services of Sechin; (3) ExxonMobil caused significant harm to the Ukraine-related sanctions program objectives by engaging the services of an SDN designated on the basis that he is an official of the Government of the Russian Federation contributing to the crisis in Ukraine; and (4) ExxonMobil is a sophisticated and experienced oil and gas company that has global operations and routinely deals in goods, services, and technology subject to U.S economic sanctions and U.S. export controls. OFAC considered the following to be a mitigating factor: ExxonMobil has not received a penalty notice or Finding of Violation from OFAC in the five years preceding the date of the first transaction giving rise to the violation..."

It seems that OFAC would have fined ExxonMobil more if it could have. During 2016, ExxonMobil generated sales revenues of $197.52 billion and net income of $7.84 billion. So, the company can easily afford this fine.

ExxonMobil issued a press release on July 20 which denied the violations and claimed that it had received clear guidance from the Treasury Department that the transactions were legal, "so long as the activity related to Rosneft’s business and not Sechin’s personal business." The press release also cited several news sources. You'd think that the company's executive would simply have gone straight to the source, the OFAC, and bypassed intermediaries.

The OFAC Enforcement Information document debunked the energy company's claim:

"ExxonMobil claims that it interpreted press statements as establishing a distinction between Sechin's "professional" and "personal" capacity, in part citing to a news article published in April 2014 that quoted a Department of the Treasury representative as saying that a U.S. person would not be prohibited from participating in a meeting of Rosneft' s board of directors. However, that brief statement did not address the conduct in this case.

Furthermore, the plain language of the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations (which were issued after the Executive branch statements) and E.O. 13661 do not contain a "personal" versus "professional" distinction, and OFAC has neither interpreted its Regulations in that manner nor endorsed such a distinction. The press release statements provided context for the policy rationale surrounding the targeted approach during the early days of the Ukraine crisis, which was to isolate designated individuals who were targeted as a result of the crisis in Ukraine, rather than imposing blocking sanctions on the large companies that they managed. No materials issued by the White House or the Department of the Treasury asserted an exception or carve-out for the professional conduct of designated or blocked persons, nor did any materials suggest that U.S. persons could continue to conduct or engage in business with such individuals.

Separately, there was a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) publicly available on the OFAC website at the time of the violations that specifically spoke to the conduct at issue in this case..."

The Enforcement Information document is available at the Treasury Department's website and here (Adobe PDF).

While at the Treasury Department's website, I noticed that the Treasury Notes blog stopped publishing on January 19, 2017 -- about the same time as the Presidential Inauguration. What's up with that? Does the Treasury Department, under the Trump Administration, believe that it is okay not to inform citizens, taxpayers, and voters?