US, Microsoft reach settlement over tech firm’s sanctions violations

The United States and Microsoft Corp reached a settlement on Thursday over the tech firm’s apparent violations of sanctions and export controls, which it disclosed voluntarily, the government and the company said.

Microsoft has agreed to remit about $3 million to settle its potential civil liability for more than 1,300 apparent sanctions violations in relation to restrictions on Cuba, Iran, Syria and Russia involving the export of services or software from the U.S. to sanctioned jurisdictions, the U.S. Treasury Department 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, and occurred as a result of Microsoft’s failure to identify and prevent the use of its products by prohibited parties, the Treasury Department said.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 before launching a full scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

In an emailed statement to Reuters, Microsoft acknowledged failures in its sanctions compliance and said it had cooperated with the probe and was pleased with the settlement.

Discover the stories of your interest


“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.

Stay on top of technology and startup news that matters. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.

For all the latest Technology News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TheDailyCheck is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected] The content will be deleted within 24 hours.