On December 13, 2024, C.H. Robinson International Inc. (NASD: CHR), a publicly traded Minnesota-based global transportation and logistics company, agreed to pay $257,690 to settle an OFAC investigation that revealed 82 violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran and Cuba by five of the company’s non-U.S. subsidiaries.
The violations, which occurred over a period of more than three years, consisted of providing freight brokerage or transportation services for 82 shipments, to or from Iran, involving Iranian- or Cuban-origin goods, or dealing with an Iranian airline.
From 2016–2019, CHR acquired foreign freight brokerage and transport subsidiaries in China, Spain, Peru, Canada, and Australia. Because of a lag in transitioning the foreign subsidiaries’ freight management systems to the CHR system, the subsidiary systems failed to screen adequately for U.S. sanctions violations. This continued from the time of the acquisitions through 2022, when an audit by CHR’s export compliance team discovered the apparent OFAC violations by the acquired subsidiaries.
The statutory maximum penalty that could have been assessed for the violations was over $28 million. However, because CHR self-reported, and because the conduct was both unintentional and non-egregious, and because CHR took prompt remedial measures and cooperated with OFAC, OFAC reduced the penalty to the above-cited $257,690 for settlement purposes.
For more information on OFAC sanctions, see our OFAC FAQ.
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