Keystone Cops time – Kanawha Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Humana, serviced policies for AXA Equitable. Neither firm screened policyholders – perhaps they assumed the other was doing it. And they missed three SDNs designated under the narcotics trafficking sanctions program. Oops.
Why a Finding of Violation? Here’s what OFAC had to say on the matter in the AXA enforcement action:
A Finding of Violation is appropriate given that
- AXA is a large and commercially sophisticated financial institution;
- AXA facilitated and/or processed 34 payments totaling $14,406.19, and maintained two health insurance policies in which one or more SDNs had an interest;
- AXA’s failure to identify and block these policies caused harm to the integrity of the FNKSR and its associated policy objectives; and
- AXA’s OFAC compliance program does not appear to have ensured that the names of policyholders associated with policies the company issued that were administered and/or serviced by the original TPA were screened or reviewed for OFAC compliance purposes.
OFAC also considered that
- no AXA personnel, including managers or supervisors, appear to have had actual knowledge of the conduct that led to the violations;
- AXA has not received a penalty notice or Finding of Violation from OFAC relating to substantially similar violations in the five years preceding the date of the conduct giving rise to the violations; and
- AXA cooperated with OFAC’s investigation, including by voluntarily self-disclosing the violations to OFAC and by executing a statute of limitations tolling agreement and an extension to the agreement.
Links:
AXA Equitable Enforcement Action
Filed under: Enforcement Actions, Insurance Industry, Narcotics Trafficking, OFAC Updates
