Microsoft to pay $3 million in fines for selling software to sanctioned Russian companies

Microsoft will pay a $3 million fine in the US for selling software to sanctioned companies in Russia, Cuba, Iran and Syria between 2012 and 2019.

According to the US Department of Defense, most of the apparent violations involved the activities of blocked Russian units or individuals based in Ukraine’s Crimean region. Treasury.

“The settlement amount reflects the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s view that the conduct of the Microsoft entities was not egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed, and also reflects the significant corrective actions Microsoft took after discovering the apparent violations,” it said. in the statement.

According to OFAC’s enforcement notice, Microsoft, Microsoft Ireland and Microsoft Russia failed to control who purchased the company’s software and services through third parties.

Between July 2012 and April 2019, Microsoft entities committed 1,339 apparent violations of various OFAC sanctions programs when they sold software licenses, activated software licenses, and/or provided related services from servers and systems located in the United States and Ireland to SDN networks. individuals and other end-users located in Cuba, Iran, Syria, Russia and the Crimea region of Ukraine.

“These apparent violations were caused by a lack of complete or accurate information about the identity of the end customers of Microsoft products,” the Treasury Department said.

The total value of these sales and related services was $12,105,189.79.

According to the US agency, Microsoft Russia employees may have also deliberately tried to subvert the company’s due diligence efforts.

A Microsoft spokesperson said that “Microsoft takes export control and sanctions compliance very seriously, which is why after learning of screening errors and violations by a few employees, we have voluntarily disclosed them to the appropriate authorities.”

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