Microsoft has agreed to remit about $3 million to settle its
potential civil liability for more than 1,300 apparent sanctions violations in
relation to restrictions on Cuba, Iran, Syria and Russia involving the export
of services or software from the U.S. to sanctioned jurisdictions, the U.S.
Treasury Department said in a statement.
The Treasury Department added that Microsoft's conduct was
"non-egregious and voluntarily self-disclosed."
A majority of the violations, which took place between 2012
and 2019, involved blocked Russian entities or persons located in the Crimea
region of Ukraine, and occurred as a result of Microsoft's failure to identify
and prevent the use of its products by prohibited parties, the Treasury
Department said.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 before launching a full scale
invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
In an emailed statement to Reuters, Microsoft acknowledged
failures in its sanctions compliance and said it had cooperated with the probe
and was pleased with the settlement.
"Microsoft takes export control and sanctions
compliance very seriously, which is why after learning of the screening
failures and infractions of a few employees, we voluntarily disclosed them to
the appropriate authorities," a company spokesperson said.
The causes of sanctions violations included a lack of complete
or accurate information on the identities of the end customers for Microsoft
products, the Treasury Department said, adding that there were shortcomings in
Microsoft's restricted-party screening.
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