TEHRAN – The U.S. Treasury has announced that First Bank of Romania and JC Flowers agreed to pay OFAC $862,318 to settle violations of Iran and Syria Sanctions Programs.
A report by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the U.S. Treasury Department said that the Romanian First Bank has been fined $862,318.
According to the OFAC report, First Bank processed 98 transactions totaling $3.5 million through US banks on behalf of individuals and entities located in Iran and Syria.
In violation of the Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, the previous United States administration sanctioned Iran while it had not withdrawn from the deal in May 2018.
The new OFAC report said that the Treasury Department fined the Romanian banks for transactions before the US JCPOA exit in 2016 when the JCPOA had been signed and the US secondary sanctions were supposed to be lifted after the implementation of the deal.
“During the period of March 2016 to December 2018, First Bank processed 34 outgoing payments through U.S. banks in which the end user of the transaction was located in Iran. The payments were made on behalf of Iranian customers of First Bank,” the report by OFAC says.