Australian company pays $6 million for violating U.S. sanctions on Syria

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that an Australia-based international freight forwarding and logistics company agreed to remit approximately $6.1 million to settle its violations of U.S. sanctions on Syria, North Korea, and Iran.

The OFAC stated that Toll Holdings Ltd. has entered into a settlement over nearly 3,000 apparent violations of multiple U.S. sanctions regulations, including sanctions regulations for proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and global terrorism sanctions regulations.

“The apparent violations occurred when Toll originated or received payments through the U.S. financial system involving sanctioned jurisdictions and persons,” the statement read.

According to the OFAC release, between January 2013 and February 2019, the Australian company created or received 2,958 payments in connection with sea, air, and rail shipments.

“The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s decision that the Australian company’s apparent violations were non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed,” the release added.

In 2020, the U.S. put into effect Caesar’s Act, a set of sanctions targeting senior government and military officials of the Syrian government and its allies and impose sanctions against Russian and Iranian entities that provide support to Syria’s energy, defense, and construction sectors.

The sanctions have indirectly hampered the economy of North and East Syria, an ally of the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). Although an exception for North and East Syria to the sanctions has been rumored for the past month, no action on the part of the U.S. has materialized.