What is the cost of a sanctions violation?

Sanctions violations are expensive: civil penalties alone start in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per violation.

TL;DR

TL;DR: OFAC civil penalties start at $356,000 per violation, on top of legal fees, investigation costs, and reputational damage. Intent is not required because enforcement is strict liability.

The penalty floor

OFAC, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, enforces the SDN List, the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Civil penalties start at $356,000 per violation, which is over $350,000 before any other cost is added. The 50 Percent Rule expands exposure: entities 50% or more owned by a blocked person are also blocked.

The non-penalty costs

Beyond the penalty itself, a violation brings legal fees, internal investigation time, and reputational harm with counterparties and partners. None of these are capped, and they often exceed the fine in practice.

How to avoid the cost

Prevention is far cheaper than response. sanctionsai.dev (agentmail) screens a counterparty before an AI agent pays, returning clean (ALLOW) or flagged (BLOCK) in one HTTP call under 100 ms. Paid plans include a $10,000 legal-fee guarantee, and the free tier offers 5 checks per day with no signup and no key.

Who bears the cost

In an agent or automated system, the cost does not disappear just because no human chose to pay. Strict liability means the operator of the agent bears responsibility even for automated transfers. Screening before the agent pays is the cheapest insurance against a penalty that starts at $356,000 per violation.