Don't Get Caught Doing Business with Terrorists!
SDN Search Engine
[ Search OFAC's SDN List ]
Updated: May 19 2009 15:48:18 CDT
The Fastest, Easiest and Most Accurate Way to Search OFAC's SDN List
The US Treasury has given an extension from possible prosecution under the USA Patriot
Act. Please keep in mind, the extension only applies to having written procedures in
place. Dealers must still check the customer name against the government's SDN (specially
designated nationals) listing of known terrorists and money launderers before any
sale.
| The Act was passed in October 2001 and all exemptions are expired. Many
dealers are not doing this. You can start using the Government's SDN list to check your
customer's name against the U.S. Treasury's listing and be in compliance now.
The government expects you to check the sanctions listing before you do each business
transaction. The USA Patriot Act requires is for you to have written procedures in place
to prove that you are checking this listing. |
OFAC Compliance applies to all US
citizens and permanent resident aliens as well as all US formed companies whether located
in the US or abroad. However, with the USA Patriot Act of 2001, the President gave new
weight to OFAC compliance for all retailers. Jewelers, car dealers, travel agents, and all
other retail businesses must now verify that they are not conducting business with or on
behalf of a blocked entity. Any company dealing with high ticket items has already had the
risk of seeing those purchases used as a way to launder money and establish legitimate
looking accounts for those avoiding law enforcement. However, current events have
placed all retailers on alert for verifying that they are not conducting business that is
against the policies and interests of the United States. Taking on this level
of compliance can seem to be a daunting task. A good starting point is to evaluate what
areas of your company possess the highest risk for a compliance violation. Typically they
include: credit cards, high ticket business accounts, point of sale transactions, and
customer information files. It is important that the solution used for scanning these
areas not only be extremely fast, but have a low false positive rate. |
If you have procedures and the proper tools in place and slip and allow a
sanctioned transaction, they may very well mitigate the fines and punishment (up to
$10,000,000.00 / 30 years prison per offense).
If you have nothing in place when it happens, there may be no mitigation and they could
make public all persons involved with the illegal transaction. It could ruin your business
and devastate your life.
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/interim/document2pdf
The Act was passed because so many Americans were performing transactions with
terrorists, drug traffickers, money launderers, etc. in defiance or unawareness of the
sanction laws.
The reason certain industries, is those industries, including automotive and
boat sales, were found to be used by sanctioned persons to siphon clean monies
for their illegal use. See note on Section 302 below
Simply, you must know who is on the listing in order to not violate our sanction laws.
The listing is public at http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/
but is not an easy to use tool.
DealerSoft has developed an extremely fast search engine, that searches an updated SDN
list. We do all the updates, convert the raw text data into an indexed database, and all
you need to do is search to check the list for persons or organizations who are SDN
listed.
Others are charging as much as 125.00 per month for user friendly access to the SDN
lists, but we are charging 25.00 per month fo a subscription to our site, and there's
nothing to order or download. You simply subscribe online to our site from the link at the top of this page.
Don't get caught without something in place. Also, please contact other business
associates to make sure they have procedures in place.
DealerSoft Management
Please Read
Section 302 of the Antiterrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 also authorizes the Secretary of State to
designate organizations as "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" ("FTOs").
The Act makes it a criminal offense for U.S. persons to provide material support or
resources to FTOs and requires financial institutions to block all funds in which FTOs or
their agents have an interest. The term "financial institutions" comes from 31
U.S.C. 5312(a)(2) and is defined very broadly. Among the types of businesses covered by
Treasury's Foreign Terrorist Organizations Sanctions Regulations, which implement Sections
302 and 303 of the Act, are banks, securities and commodities broker/dealers, investment
companies, currency exchanges, issuers, redeemers, and cashiers of traveler's checks,
checks, money orders, or similar instruments, credit card system operators,
insurance companies, dealers in precious metals, stones or jewels, pawnbrokers,
loan and finance companies, travel agencies, licensed money transmitters, telegraph
companies, businesses engaged in vehicle sales, including automobile, airplane
or boat sales, persons involved in real estate closings or settlements, and casinos.
Such "financial institutions" must notify OFAC Compliance about any blocked
funds within ten days of blocking. The Act provides for civil penalties to be assessed
against financial institutions for failing to block or report the blocking of FTO funds in
an amount equal to $50,000 per violation or twice the amount which ought to have been
blocked or reported, whichever is greater. Foreign Terrorist Organizations and their
agents are integrated into OFAC's alphabetized master list of Specially Designated
Nationals and Blocked Persons with an identifier of "[FTO]." They have been
separately listed in OFAC's Terrorism: What You Need to Know brochure.
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