Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a settlement with Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (BPPR), a Puerto Rican bank with branches in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. BPPR agreed to remit $255,937.86 to settle its potential civil liability for 337 apparent violations of the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations. The apparent violations occurred when BPPR processed transactions totaling $853,126 on behalf of two individuals who were low level employees of the Government of Venezuela (GoV), in apparent violation of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela. All of the apparent violations resulted from the maintenance of four personal accounts operated by these two employees of the GoV. The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s determination that BPPR’s apparent violations were non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed. For more information, please visit the following web notice.