Tobacco Company Settles With US Over Business in North Korea

Hold onto your hats, folks! A British tobacco company has just been hit with a whopping $629 million settlement for doing illegal business with North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions. That’s right, British American Tobacco, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, has been caught red-handed and has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. But wait, there’s more! The company’s Singapore subsidiary has also pleaded guilty to bank fraud and sanctions charges.

Now, we all know that North Korea has been facing some pretty strict U.S. and international sanctions for nearly two decades due to its nuclear weapons program and development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. But that hasn’t stopped Pyongyang from continuing to research and test more nuclear weapons, or from working to evade sanctions with the help of allies like China and illicit trade with barred countries and companies.

But here’s the kicker: this penalty is the largest arising from North Korea sanctions violations in the Justice Department’s history! Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen has warned companies that support rogue regimes like North Korea through their activities that they need to have compliance programs in place to prevent these kinds of activities from taking place.

So, let this be a lesson to all companies out there: don’t mess with U.S. sanctions, or you’ll be paying the price!

Oh, and by the way, BAT has admitted that it continued to do tobacco business in North Korea. Tsk tsk.