Samsung Electronics' audio and institutional sector subsidiary Harman International has been fined by the U.S. Treasury Department for allegedly violating sanctions related to Iran.
According to documentation on private sanctions published by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on the 8th (local time), Harman agreed to pay $1.45 million (about 2 billion won) for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions related to Iran. Harman is the company that Samsung Electronics acquired in 2017 for about 9 trillion won.
Harman has sold products to Iran 11 times through distributors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between May 2018 and October 2020, and the final users of the products included the Iranian government.
OFAC confirmed that 13 British sales team members employed by Harman's U.S. subsidiary were actively involved in violating the sanctions during this process.
Some employees were aware that the distributor had a practice of sending goods to Iran and had suspicions that such transactions might be prohibited, as noted by OFAC.
Evidence was also captured that these individuals had been using terms like 'northern region,' 'North Dubai,' or 'north' in internal emails and documents instead of directly mentioning 'Iran' to conceal transactions with Iran.
OFAC explained that while the violations were serious, given that Harman self-reported and cooperated with the investigation, and that there had been no violations in the past five years, they determined the settlement amount.
According to OFAC, the settlement amount in this case under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) could reach up to $4.15 million (about 5.7 billion won).