WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A US district court ruled that a subsidiary of the world’s largest oilfield services company Schlumberger must pay $232.7 million penalty for violating US trade sanctions against Iran and Sudan, according to a US Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
“The US District Court of the District of Columbia entered a formal judgment yesterday memorializing the sentence requiring Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings Ltd.(SOHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Schlumberger Ltd, to pay a $232,708,356 penalty to the United States for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by willfully facilitating illegal transactions and engaging in trade with Iran and Sudan,” the release said on Thursday.
On March 25, SOHL filed a guilty plea agreement stating it “knowingly and willfully” violated US sanctions against Iran and Sudan.
The DOJ stressed in the release that such ruling should discourage other multinational corporations from working with countries subject to US economic sanctions.
The IEEPA, enacted in 1977, authorizes US presidents to regulate commerce in response to any foreign threat to the United States. At present, more than a dozen countries, including Iran and Sudan, are subject to sanctions under the act.
