PayPal is paying $7.7 million to the government after being accused of allowing sanction-violating payments to Cuba, Iran and Sudan. The US Treasury Department says the company failed to adequately screen and prevent transactions. The firm had allowed a $7,000 transaction made by someone linked to weapons of mass destruction to go ahead.
The payments company says it has taken steps to improve how payments were scanned in real-time. It says it voluntarily reported details about some payments made through its service to Ofac. The payments in question were made between 2009 and 2013. It claimed that prohibited transactions were allowed to be successful due to scanning delays.
The company says: “Since then, we’ve taken additional steps to support compliance with Ofac regulations with the introduction of real-time scanning of payments and improved processes”.
The Treasury Department says that almost 500 potentially sanction-violating payments had gone through. The sanctions were in place to stop US companies trading with blacklisted businesses, organisations and individuals. The company has not admitted or denied violating sanctions.
PayPal is one of the world’s largest payments services. It claims to have around 162 million active digital wallets, helping people and businesses make and accept payments in over 100 different currencies.
