OFAC Lawyer in Miami
A Brickell-based trading company received a wire transfer in February 2026 from a Venezuelan counterparty. Three days later, OFAC froze the funds—the sender’s corporate officer had been added to the SDN List under Executive Order 13850 in January. The company’s CEO had 30 days to file a response before civil penalties automatically applied under 31 C.F.R. § 501.806.
- A wire transfer or payment got frozen without explanation. We identify whether the block traces to a genuine SDN match, a screening false positive, or exposure through a counterparty’s ownership structure — and file the required blocking report before deadlines under 31 C.F.R. § 501.806 pass.
- You received a Prepenalty Notice or Penalty Notice from OFAC. You have 30 calendar days to respond — we conduct transaction forensics, argue for non-egregious classification, and negotiate mitigation before that window closes.
- Your real estate, hospitality, or trade business is facing a compliance gap you found first. We prepare voluntary self-disclosures that can cut penalties by 50%, and structure remedial programs OFAC credits during negotiation.
What OFAC Violations Cost Miami Businesses & Individuals
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. § 1705) sets criminal penalties for willful OFAC violations at up to 20 years imprisonment and $1 million in fines per violation. Civil penalties under IEEPA reach the greater of twice the transaction value or $377,700 per violation as of 2026 (adjusted annually for inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act). The Trading with the Enemy Act carries even higher criminal exposure—lifetime imprisonment and unlimited fines for transactions with designated hostile nations.
What does this mean in practice? If your company processes a $50,000 wire transfer to a blocked party, OFAC’s minimum civil demand is $100,000—double the transaction amount. But in willful cases, that figure balloons. The same transaction handled knowingly could trigger criminal charges carrying sentences longer than many felonies.
Miami’s financial infrastructure amplifies this risk dramatically. Brickell’s banking corridor processes over $2 trillion in cross-border transactions annually, with correspondent relationships spanning Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and other high-risk jurisdictions. Real estate transactions in Wynwood, Miami Beach, and downtown Miami routinely involve beneficial owners from sanctioned countries or politically exposed persons subject to enhanced due diligence requirements under FinCEN’s Customer Due Diligence Rule (31 C.F.R. § 1010.230).
A single unlicensed wire transfer to a blocked party creates strict liability regardless of knowledge or intent. OFAC’s enforcement guidelines (published in its Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines, 31 C.F.R. Part 501, Appendix A) evaluate voluntary self-disclosure, cooperation, and remedial measures when calculating penalties, but the baseline exposure remains severe. The January 2025 settlement with a Miami freight forwarder resulted in a $4.8 million penalty for 127 unlicensed shipments to Syria between 2020 and 2023, demonstrating OFAC’s focus on Miami logistics and trade companies.
OFAC-Anwalt in Miami
Our team specialises in cases with an international element. We review applicable treaties, assess risks, and prepare an action plan.
Contact a lawyer →OFAC vs. FinCEN vs. DOJ: Understanding Overlapping Miami Enforcement
Miami businesses face concurrent exposure from multiple federal agencies, each with distinct mandates and penalties. Here’s which agency handles what violations:
| Agency | Authority | Violation Type | Penalty Range | Miami Focus Areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OFAC | 31 C.F.R. Part 501 | Unlicensed transactions with SDN List parties, blocked property, prohibited exports | Civil: up to $356,579 per violation; Criminal: 20 years + $1M | Real estate (beneficial ownership screening), banking (wire transfers), hospitality (guest screening), trade logistics |
| FinCEN | 31 U.S.C. § 5318 | Bank Secrecy Act violations, failure to file SARs/CTRs, inadequate AML programs | Civil: $100,000 per violation; Criminal: 5 years + $250,000 | Miami banks, MSBs, casinos, high-value dealers (art, jewelry, luxury goods) |
| DOJ | 18 U.S.C. § 1956-1957 | Money laundering, concealment, structuring, conspiracy | Criminal only: 20 years + twice transaction value | Brickell financial district, Miami International Airport customs, port cargo operations |
| OFAC + DOJ | Joint prosecution | Willful IEEPA violations, sanctions evasion schemes | Combined criminal exposure: 20+ years | Cases involving shell companies, falsified invoices, deceptive shipping practices |
The 2025 guilty plea of Miami real estate broker Roman Sinyavsky illustrates this overlap. Sinyavsky admitted to conspiring to violate IEEPA and commit money laundering by managing, leasing, and selling luxury condominiums owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs Viktor Perevalov and Valeri Abramov between January 2018 and March 2023. He faces up to five years in prison under the plea agreement, forfeited over $182,000 in proceeds, and — alongside his company — agreed to pay roughly $1,076,923 million in civil penalties to OFAC. The case demonstrates that a sanctioned relationship dating back years before any new designation still carries ongoing criminal and civil exposure for the local professionals who service it.
How OFAC Identifies & Investigates Miami-Based Business Activity
OFAC maintains the SDN List with over 10,000 entries as of January 2026, updated continuously at sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov. Miami financial institutions must screen all transactions against this list using name-matching algorithms that flag partial hits, phonetic matches, and alias variations. A single false-negative—failing to block a transaction involving an SDN party—creates strict liability even when the screening software vendor provides the technology.
Brickell’s banking infrastructure generates concentrated enforcement risk. Major correspondent banks processing payments through the corridor file approximately 15,000 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) annually under 31 C.F.R. § 1020.320, with FinCEN data showing Miami-Dade County consistently ranks in the top three U.S. counties for SAR volume since 2019. These reports trigger OFAC investigations within 10 to 30 days when they reference sanctioned jurisdictions (Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua) or blocked parties.
OFAC investigators use advanced data analytics to identify sanctions evasion patterns. Common red flags in Miami include:
- Multiple wire transfers just below $10,000 (structuring to avoid Currency Transaction Reports)
- Payments routed through third countries (Panama, Colombia, Mexico) to disguise Venezuelan or Cuban origin
- Real estate purchases using shell LLCs with opaque beneficial ownership
- Luxury hotels and short-term rentals in Miami Beach, Brickell, and Wynwood hosting guests who match SDN List profiles
- High-end restaurants and nightlife venues processing credit card payments tied to blocked individuals
The Corporate Transparency Act (effective January 1, 2024) requires most LLCs and corporations to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN, creating a new enforcement tool for OFAC. Miami real estate transactions in Brickell City Centre Miami FL, Wynwood Walls Miami, and luxury residential towers now face automated cross-referencing between FinCEN beneficial ownership data and the SDN List. A February 2025 OFAC enforcement action against a Wynwood art gallery resulted in $1.2 million in penalties after FinCEN reporting revealed the gallery’s beneficial owner was the nephew of a designated Venezuelan official.
Miami’s 24-hour commercial infrastructure (Miami 247 operations, Brightline Miami train service connecting to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Miami International Airport with 350+ daily international flights) creates continuous transaction flow across high-risk corridors. OFAC coordinates with Customs and Border Protection to monitor inbound travelers from sanctioned countries, with passenger manifests and ESTA applications cross-checked against SDN List entries. Business owners operating near Miami Central station, Miami airport terminals, or PortMiami cargo facilities face enhanced scrutiny due to proximity to these enforcement checkpoints.
The Legal Defense Process When OFAC Enforcement Targets You
OFAC enforcement begins with either a Prepenalty Notice (for apparent violations under $250,000) or a Penalty Notice (for larger cases or egregious conduct). You have 30 calendar days from the notice date to submit a written response under 31 C.F.R. § 501.806. This deadline is jurisdictional. Miss it, and the proposed penalty becomes final automatically—triggering Treasury collection actions including tax refund seizures, federal payment offsets, and referral to the Department of Justice for judicial enforcement.
Your OFAC lawyer will immediately conduct transaction forensics to establish:
- Whether the transaction actually violated sanctions. Many apparent violations qualify for general licenses—General License 5A under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, for instance, permits certain remittances—or fall outside OFAC’s jurisdiction entirely when non-U.S. persons transact outside the United States in non-U.S. currency.
- The degree of culpability. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines distinguish between egregious violations (those involving SDN List individuals, willful concealment, or management knowledge) and non-egregious ones. Egregious cases carry a penalty base starting at 50% of the transaction value; non-egregious cases start lower. This classification shapes your entire negotiation strategy.
- Mitigating factors under 31 C.F.R. Part 501, Appendix A. Voluntary self-disclosure cuts the penalty base by 50%—a massive lever if you discover violations before OFAC does. Cooperation with investigators, remedial compliance measures (screening software, employee training), and absence of management knowledge also reduce exposure significantly.
When violations span multiple transactions over months or years, attorneys negotiate transaction aggregation—treating a series of related violations as a single course of conduct rather than separate penalties. A Miami import/export company facing 230 apparent violations for unlicensed shipments to Venezuela between 2021 and 2024 reduced its exposure from $82 million (230 × $356,579) to $4.1 million through aggregation and mitigation arguments in June 2025. That shift between potential bankruptcy and manageable settlement hinges entirely on how violations are framed.
If OFAC rejects mitigation arguments and issues a final penalty determination, you have exactly 10 days to pay or request judicial review in federal district court under 50 U.S.C. § 1705(b). Miss that window and you lose the right to challenge the penalty. The Southern District of Florida (Miami Division) hears these challenges, but judicial review is narrow—the court can only overturn OFAC if its determination was arbitrary, capricious, or unsupported by substantial evidence. The government wins approximately 92% of these challenges, which means administrative settlement remains the preferred outcome.
Why Miami Businesses in Trade, Hospitality & Real Estate Need OFAC Counsel Now
Miami’s economic structure concentrates OFAC risk across industries federal agencies actively target for sanctions enforcement:
International Trade & Logistics: PortMiami processes over 5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) annually, with Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina representing 40% of South American trade volume. Import/export companies, freight forwarders, and customs brokers must screen bills of lading, shipper/consignee information, and vessel ownership against OFAC lists before filing Importer Security Filings. A single container bound for a blocked party creates per-shipment liability—even when you hired a freight forwarder specifically to handle compliance. You remain liable regardless of which vendor failed to screen.
Hospitality & Tourism: Miami hotels, Airbnb properties in Wynwood and Miami Beach, and entertainment venues face guest-screening obligations when serving foreign nationals. OFAC does not require blanket screening of all guests, but accepting payment from blocked individuals or providing services to SDN List parties violates 31 C.F.R. § 501.201. A Miami Beach luxury hotel settled for $680,000 in 2024 after processing 14 room bookings by family members of sanctioned Venezuelan officials between 2019 and 2022. Each booking became a separate violation.
Real Estate Development & Sales: Projects like Brickell City Centre, Miami Worldcenter, and Wynwood residential towers attract foreign capital from Latin America, Russia, and China—jurisdictions with extensive SDN List designations. Developers, brokers, title companies, and property managers must verify beneficial ownership under the Corporate Transparency Act before closing. The 2023 Sinyavsky case exposed a harsh reality: property managers and rental agents face criminal exposure for handling blocked properties even when the property was lawfully purchased before sanctions designation occurred.
Banking & Financial Services: Miami banks, credit unions, and money services businesses in the Brickell financial district must maintain OFAC compliance programs under Section 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve conduct routine examinations, with violations resulting in consent orders, civil money penalties, and restrictions on growth that can strangle expansion plans for years. A February 2024 OCC enforcement action against a Miami-based community bank imposed a $12 million penalty and a three-year growth restriction after examiners found 1,800 screening deficiencies.
Small Businesses & Service Providers: Independent contractors, electronics retailers, luxury goods boutiques, restaurants, and professional services firms face OFAC liability when accepting payment for services rendered to blocked parties. Most small businesses lack dedicated compliance staff and rely on payment processors for screening—but the liability stays with you, not the processor. OFAC issued 34 penalties to Miami-area small businesses in 2025, averaging $140,000 per case.
Miami’s Cuban-American business community navigates additional complexity under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (31 C.F.R. Part 515). These restrictions apply to most commercial transactions with Cuba despite partial relaxation of family remittances and travel under General Licenses. A Hialeah logistics company paid $2.3 million in 2023 penalties for shipping medical equipment to Cuban hospitals without a specific license—even though the company argued the equipment qualified for humanitarian exceptions.
What to Look For in an OFAC Lawyer: Miami-Specific Qualifications
Our attorneys have represented clients in OFAC administrative proceedings and, where necessary, before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Red Flags & Early Warning Signs Your Business May Be Under OFAC Review
OFAC investigations rarely announce themselves with formal notice. Instead, enforcement exposure surfaces through indirect signals most businesses miss:
Banking Disruptions: Your financial institution places a hold on an outgoing wire transfer without explanation or requests additional documentation about the beneficiary, purpose, or destination country. Under 31 C.F.R. § 501.603, banks must freeze transactions involving sanctioned parties and report to OFAC within 10 days. The block itself does not prove you violated sanctions—false positives happen frequently due to name-matching algorithms—but it signals OFAC will scrutinize the transaction. If the same counterparty appears repeatedly across multiple blocked transfers, OFAC may be building a pattern.
SAR-Related Inquiries: A grand jury subpoena, FBI interview request, or IRS Criminal Investigation Division contact asks about specific customers, transactions, or foreign counterparties. SARs themselves are confidential under 31 U.S.C. § 5318(g)(2), but federal investigators routinely use SAR information to launch parallel OFAC investigations. When agents reference specific transaction dates, amounts, or foreign jurisdictions you recognize, assume a SAR triggered their inquiry.
Customer Due Diligence Gaps: Internal audits reveal gaps in CDD procedures: customers whose beneficial ownership information was never collected, wire transfers screened without checking the SDN List, transactions approved despite partial name matches to sanctioned parties. Even without OFAC contact, these deficiencies create voluntary self-disclosure opportunities under OFAC’s enforcement guidelines—which can eliminate criminal exposure and reduce civil penalties by half.
Foreign Government Action: A foreign bank freezes assets, customs authority detains goods, or regulatory agency (especially EU jurisdictions implementing Council Regulation 833/2014) requests information about transactions involving your business. EU and UK sanctions often track U.S. measures, meaning a violation detected abroad may trigger OFAC notification through mutual legal assistance treaties or regulatory cooperation agreements.
Employee Whistleblower Activity: A current or former employee contacts your compliance department, outside counsel, or government agencies about potential sanctions violations. The SEC Whistleblower Program, CFTC Whistleblower Program, and FinCEN’s Bank Secrecy Act whistleblower provisions offer financial rewards for reporting sanctions violations. This creates powerful financial incentive for employees to bypass internal channels entirely. Miami businesses with multinational staff or high turnover—hospitality, retail, logistics especially—face elevated whistleblower risk.
Immediate consultation with OFAC counsel upon detecting any of these signals allows you to conduct privileged internal investigations before government contact, preserve attorney-client privilege over compliance reviews, and prepare voluntary self-disclosure submissions that reduce penalties by up to 50% under OFAC’s enforcement guidelines. Wait too long, and you forfeit these procedural advantages. Criminal prosecution risk climbs sharply.
How to Choose Between Administrative Settlement and Criminal Defense in Miami OFAC Cases
Five threshold factors determine whether to pursue administrative settlement with OFAC or prepare for criminal prosecution:
1. Management Knowledge: If executives, compliance officers, or senior managers knew the transaction violated sanctions and authorized it anyway, OFAC classifies the violation as “egregious” and typically refers the matter to DOJ under its criminal referral protocols. The 2023 Sinyavsky case involved emails showing the defendant knew he was managing properties for sanctioned oligarchs. That direct evidence of willfulness made criminal prosecution inevitable.
2. Transaction Volume and Duration: Isolated violations rarely generate criminal referrals unless they involve designated terrorists, weapons proliferation, or national security threats. But patterns spanning months or years signal systematic evasion. OFAC’s enforcement data shows criminal referrals increase exponentially when violations exceed 50 transactions or $500,000 in aggregate value. If you’re at that threshold, expect DOJ interest.
3. Use of Deceptive Practices: Falsifying invoices, creating shell companies to disguise beneficial ownership, routing transactions through intermediaries specifically to evade sanctions, or lying to banks about transaction purpose—these actions transform civil violations into criminal conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371. The Southern District of Florida prosecuted 11 sanctions conspiracy cases in 2024-2025, all involving deliberate concealment.
4. Voluntary Self-Disclosure Timing: Disclose violations to OFAC before the agency discovers them independently, and you qualify for 50% penalty reduction under the enforcement guidelines. Criminal referral likelihood drops significantly. But disclosure after receiving a grand jury subpoena, SAR-related inquiry, or bank block notification provides no penalty mitigation. Worse: it may waive Fifth Amendment protections if done without counsel present.
5. Cooperation Value: If your business can provide substantial assistance identifying upstream or downstream sanctions evaders—foreign suppliers, shell company operators, corrupt foreign officials—DOJ may offer deferred prosecution agreements or non-prosecution agreements in exchange for cooperation. Miami’s role as a financial hub for Latin American sanctions evasion makes local businesses particularly valuable cooperators in DOJ’s broader enforcement strategy.
Your OFAC attorney analyzes these factors during initial consultation to recommend the appropriate defense strategy. In many cases, hybrid approaches work best: negotiating administrative settlement with OFAC while simultaneously preparing criminal defense if DOJ enters the matter. This requires counsel admitted to practice in both federal administrative proceedings and the Southern District of Florida criminal docket.
FAQ
What services does an OFAC attorney in Miami typically provide to clients?
OFAC counsel in Miami represents clients in sanctions compliance audits, voluntary self-disclosures to the Treasury, and defense against civil penalties or criminal charges for sanctions violations. We advise on transactional due diligence to screen counterparties against the SDN List, asset-freeze disputes, and license applications. The 2023 prosecution of Miami real-estate broker Roman Sinyavsky for conspiracy to violate Russia-Ukraine sanctions illustrates the criminal exposure Miami businesses face—making specialized OFAC defense critical.
What are the penalties for OFAC violations and why do I need a lawyer?
Civil penalties can reach the greater of twice the transaction value or an inflation-adjusted maximum per violation. Criminal violations carry fines up to one million dollars and imprisonment up to twenty years under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. A specialized lawyer is essential because OFAC enforcement involves complex defenses: voluntary disclosure, statute-of-limitations arguments, and mitigation based on compliance programs. Without expert legal guidance, even real-estate transactions trigger severe criminal exposure—as the 2023 Miami prosecution of Roman Sinyavsky for conspiracy to violate Russia-Ukraine sanctions and money laundering demonstrated.
What is the typical timeline for resolving an OFAC enforcement action in Miami?
Administrative OFAC cases typically resolve in 6 to 18 months from initial notice through final settlement, depending on transaction complexity and negotiation dynamics. Cases requiring forensic analysis, multi-jurisdictional coordination, or disputed legal interpretations may stretch to 24 months. Criminal prosecutions follow different timelines: indictment typically occurs 12 to 24 months after investigation begins, with trial scheduled 6 to 12 months after arraignment under the Speedy Trial Act. Guilty pleas with cooperation clauses often resolve within 8 to 14 months of initial government contact.
Can OFAC seize my Miami property or freeze my bank accounts?
Yes. Under 31 C.F.R. § 501.603, any property in which a blocked person has an interest is frozen immediately upon designation, regardless of whether you knew about the sanctions. This includes real estate, bank accounts, securities, intellectual property, and business interests. The Sinyavsky case taught Miami property owners this lesson: luxury condominiums owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs were blocked even though tenants and property managers had no knowledge of the sanctions when they entered rental agreements. Unblocking requires filing an application with OFAC demonstrating you qualify for a license exception or that the initial blocking was erroneous.
