Feds fine Exxon $2M for violating Russia sanctions while Tillerson was CEO

Source: The Hill | July 20, 2017 | Devin Henry

The Treasury Department on Thursday fined Exxon Mobil Corp. $2 million for violating sanctions against Russia while now-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was CEO of the company.

According to an enforcement filing from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Exxon in 2014 signed “eight legal documents related to oil and gas projects in Russia” with Igor Sechin, the president of Rosneft, a Moscow-owned oil company, after the U.S. sanctioned Russia for its incursion into Crimea.

President Obama signed an executive order establishing sanctions on Russia on March 16, 2014. The Treasury Department named Sechin a subject of those sanctions that April.

But, according to Treasury, “despite these prohibitions and ExxonMobil’s global market and sophistication, ExxonMobil moved forward with signing the legal documents with designated person Igor Sechin between on or about May 14, 2014 and on or about May 23, 2014.”

In a statement, Exxon says it “followed the clear guidance from the White House and Treasury Department” when it signed the contract with Rosneft, because officials believed the sanctions only applied to Sechin’s personal business and not on his role at Rosneft.

“Based on the Enforcement Information published today, OFAC is trying to retroactively enforce a new interpretation of an executive order that is inconsistent with the explicit and unambiguous guidance from the White House and Treasury issued before the relevant conduct and still publicly available today,” the statement said. 

“OFAC’s action is fundamentally unfair.”

Treasury’s enforcement action said that the executive order, its guidance for companies and the administration’s public statements “all clearly put ExxonMobil on notice that OFAC would consider executing documents with [people subject to sanctions] to violate the prohibitions in the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations.”

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