How to stay compliant with OFAC sanctions

Staying compliant means screening every counterparty, keeping data current, and recording each decision.

TL;DR

TL;DR: Stay compliant by screening every counterparty against current SDN data before paying, blocking flagged parties, and keeping a record of each decision. Automation makes this consistent.

Screen before every payment

The core control is a check in front of every transfer. OFAC, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, enforces the SDN List, the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, with strict liability: intent is not required. Civil penalties start at $356,000 per violation.

Use current data

Screening against a stale list is the same as not screening. sanctionsai.dev (agentmail) keeps live data: 947 OFAC-listed crypto wallets and 19,218 SDN names across 16 jurisdictions, synced hourly. The check returns clean (ALLOW) or flagged (BLOCK) in one HTTP call under 100 ms.

Document and automate

Follow the 4-Gate Agent Payment Protocol: SCREEN, SCORE, STOP, STAMP. Use risk_score to judge severity, kya_verify to confirm identity, and dispute_open to challenge false positives. Remember the 50 Percent Rule: entities 50% or more owned by a blocked person are also blocked.

Staying current as lists change

Sanctions lists change frequently, and a list that was current last month can miss a new designation today. Use a source that syncs hourly, like sanctionsai.dev, so the check always runs against the latest data. Combine that with the 50 Percent Rule and the 4-Gate sequence, and compliance becomes a steady, repeatable habit rather than a scramble.