AmEx Mistakenly Issued Card to German With Ties to Nuclear-Weapons Black Market, Treasury Says
April 30 2020 - 6:44PM
Dow Jones News
By Dylan Tokar
An American Express Co. subsidiary mistakenly issued a prepaid
card to a German engineer with alleged ties to a black market in
nuclear-weapons technology, the Treasury said Thursday.
The subsidiary, American Express Travel Related Services Co.,
provided the card to Gerhard Wisser, whom U.S. authorities have
accused of playing a role in a group run by Abdul Qadeer Khan,
sometimes referred to as the father Pakistan's nuclear program.
AmEx wasn't fined for the violation.
The subsidiary issued Mr. Wisser the prepaid card and processed
41 transactions totaling $35,246.82 in violation of U.S. sanctions,
the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said.
The alleged violations were the result of human error as well as
defects in AmEx's sanctions-screening system, the agency said. The
company voluntarily disclosed the violation to authorities, OFAC
said.
A representative for AmEx, which is based in New York, declined
to comment on OFAC's findings.
Mr. Wisser was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2009 along with a
number of other individuals and entities that U.S. authorities said
were involved in a nuclear-weapons network run by Dr. Khan.
In 2015, Mr. Wisser applied for the card at a non-U.S. bank. An
AmEx compliance screening system initially declined the bank's
application request, but additional approval attempts caused the
system to time out and the application was automatically approved,
OFAC said.
Still, the application was flagged for review, but the AmEx
compliance analyst who handled it determined incorrectly that Mr.
Wisser wasn't a sanctioned individual, the agency said.
In determining its enforcement action, the Treasury concluded
that there was no willful or reckless behavior on AmEx's part, that
the company had cooperated with OFAC's investigation and that it
had taken steps to prevent any further violations.
The case highlighted the importance of ensuring that automated
compliance controls not be overridden without appropriate review,
OFAC said.
Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 30, 2020 18:29 ET (22:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
American Express (NYSE:AXP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
American Express (NYSE:AXP)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024