Glossary
A provision of the USA PATRIOT Act that authorizes the Treasury to designate foreign jurisdictions, institutions, or transactions as primary money laundering concerns.
When Treasury issues a Section 311 finding, it can impose up to five special measures, from requiring additional recordkeeping to prohibiting US financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for the designated entity.
Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (31 USC 5318A) gives the US Treasury the authority to designate foreign jurisdictions, financial institutions, classes of transactions, or types of accounts as primary money laundering concerns and impose special measures.
Section 311 designations apply to US financial institutions and, through the special measures, to foreign financial institutions. Recently, crypto mixing services and DeFi protocols have been designated under Section 311.
AI agents that interact with designated entities under Section 311 face the same obligations as human operators. If a DeFi protocol or mixing service your agent uses gets a 311 designation, continued interaction could be prohibited.
agentmail tracks announced Section 311 findings and the list of designated entities. When an entity your agent interacts with is designated, the screening flag will reflect it.
Yes. Treasury has designated several crypto mixing services (e.g., Sinbad.io, Tornado Cash) and DeFi platforms under Section 311. AI agents using these services need to know whether continued interaction is legally permitted.
1) Recordkeeping and reporting, 2) Information sharing, 3) Beneficial ownership, 4) Payable-through account restrictions, 5) Prohibition of correspondent accounts. Measures escalate in severity.
Section 311 designations are separate from OFAC SDN listings. An entity can be a 311 concern without being an SDN. Agentmail covers both regimes.