OFAC Crewai Compliance Guide Part 1
How OFAC screening fits into CrewAI agent workflows, where crews coordinate tasks that may include payments.
TL;DR
TL;DR: CrewAI lets crews of agents collaborate on tasks, including payments, but it does not screen counterparties. Add a sanctions check before any agent pays so clean parties ALLOW and flagged parties BLOCK.
Why crews need screening
A CrewAI crew may divide work so one agent sources a vendor and another sends payment. That division does not reduce OFAC exposure. Enforcement is strict liability: intent is not required, and civil penalties start at $356,000 per violation.
Where to place the check
Gate the payment step behind sanctions_check, which returns a decision in under 100 ms from 947 OFAC-listed crypto wallets and 19,218 SDN names. The 4-Gate protocol, SCREEN, SCORE, STOP, STAMP, keeps each decision auditable across the crew.
Practical steps
- Wrap the payment tool with sanctions_check.
- STAMP clean payments for a shared audit log.
- Use risk_score to route borderline cases to review.