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Essentra fined by US over North Korea transgressions

Published: 08:00 17 Jul 2020 BST

Essentra PLC -
The transactions were carried out in Dubai

Essentra PLC (LON:ESNT), the cigarette filters group, has agreed to pay a US$666,000 fine to the US Department of Justice after several transactions in 2018 were linked to North Korea.

The settlement follows an investigation by US authorities into transactions by two employees of Essentra FZE, the FTSE 250-lited group’s business in Dubai.

None of the transactions were approved or known by senior management outside of the UAE and both employees have since been exited from the business, Essentra said in a statement.

The group added it had cooperated fully with the DoJ and the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) during the investigation.

Essentra added that it had also made a voluntary disclosure to OFAC with regards to certain historic transactions dating as far back as 2015.

Swift action had been taken to strengthen the control processes in place to ensure that such activity does not take place in the future, the company said.

Paul Forman, Essentra's chief executive, said: "A very thorough and in-depth investigation has been carried out to fully understand the root cause of the issues we have seen.

“We have made a very significant investment of both time and money, which has now equipped us with enhanced protection against any potential future issues of this nature".

President Trump tightened US sanctions on North Korea when he came into office to exclude any company that trades with the country from the US financial system.

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