Microsoft to pay $3 million over violating sanctions related to Syria

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, the United States and Microsoft reached a settlement over the tech firm’s apparent violations of sanctions and export controls, which it voluntarily disclosed.

Microsoft has agreed to pay approximately $3 million to settle its potential civil liability for more than 1,300 apparent sanctions violations involving exporting services or software from the US to Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Russia, the US Department of the Treasury 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.

The violations occurred as a result of Microsoft’s failure to identify and prevent the use of its products by prohibited parties, the Treasury Department noted.  

“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. 

Reporting by John Ahmad