The United States fines a financial company for transferring money to cards in Cuba

American Financial Solutions Company Da Vinci Payments She was fined for transferring money to cards in Cuba in violation of the restrictions imposed by her country’s government on the Cuban regime.

the Fine of $206,213imposed on the company officially named Swift Prepay Solutions, relates to 12,391 illegal transfers with a total value of $549,134.89He said in a The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) made the announcement on Monday.

DaVinci has refunded prepaid cards for users with Internet Protocol (IP) addresses linked to Iran, Syria, Cuba and Crimea. The company discovered the flaw in internal controls and began blocking access to its platform from IP addresses associated with sanctioned countries.

The statement explains that DaVinci customers financed the card programs themselves through the issuing bank, and the company provided prepaid digital or physical cards to authorized users.

In this way, the company, based in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, discovered that it had recovered prepaid cards for 13 card recipients who used email addresses linked to Iran, Syria, Cuba and Crimea.

Office of Foreign Assets Control It held that DaVinci did not exercise caution or due diligence when redeeming prepaid digital rewards cards for users who appeared to be located in sanctioned jurisdictions.

However, several mitigating factors were taken into consideration for the fine amount, such as the company conducting an internal review and IP blocking access to its platform from sanctioned jurisdictions.

In May, US cryptocurrency trading company Poloniex committed To pay a fine of $7.6 million For violating sanctions imposed on Cuba and other countries.

OFAC said in a statement that Poloniex agreed to transfer $7,591,630 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of sanctions against the governments of Cuba, Crimea, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Between January 2014 and November 2019, the trading platform allowed 232 customers, apparently located in those sanctioned jurisdictions, to carry out online transactions related to digital assets – trades, deposits and withdrawals – with a combined value of $15.3 million.