Some days you wonder if the connections of the New York isn’t to strong for the moment. When the joys of their loot and their power is not making them lose their senses. The common sense is clearly gone, as the company formerly run by Rex Tillerson, the now State Secretary of United States. Who couldn’t care less about the relationship between the United States of America and the Russian Federation. As the illegal and not internationally accepted annexation of the Crimea from the Republic of Ukraine happen. Still, even as that was happening the former Standard Oil baby ExxonMobile decided to be a trading partner and create opportunities in the vast resources in Russia and Russian territories. Now today they we’re fined, but that was a little slap on their wrist, as the real wealth inside the deal shows how much they really could have earned. Therefore, the crime and the penalty doesn’t fit. The Company gets away with a heist, but has to pay small interests for doing so. Now they are waiting for the possible time for their giant payoff and this will be simple write-off in their results in the next quarterly estimates. This sort of fine isn’t that serious, as it can easily chop it off and continue to eat.
First we will look into what the Wall Street Journal wrote about the deal between Russia and ExxonMobile, the second and third are about today’s fine and you see why it insulting fine to give.
“A U.S. official said the new penalties would affect Exxon’s current drilling in the icy Kara Sea with its Kremlin-controlled partner, OAO Rosneft, though the extent of the impact was unclear Thursday. No other Western energy company has as much direct exposure to Russia as Exxon, thanks to a $3.2 billion deal giving the company access to a swath of the Arctic larger than Texas that could hold the equivalent of billions of barrels of oil and gas. Officials in Europe, which has extensive trade links to Russia, have insisted that Western nations share the fallout from sanctions against Moscow. Russia has said it would retaliate against additional sanctions with measures of its own, further heightening the risks to companies operating there, legal experts said. Exxon is “assessing the sanctions,” said Alan Jeffers, a company spokesman. “It’s our policy to comply with all laws.” (Gilbert, 2014)
“ExxonMobil Corporation Assessed a Penalty for Violating the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations: ExxonMobil Corp., oflrving, Texas, including its U.S. subsidiaries ExxonMobil Development Company and ExxonMobil Oil Corp. (collectively, “ExxonMobil”), has been assessed a civil monetary penalty of $2,000,000 for violations of the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 589 (Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations). Between on or about May 14, 2014 and on or about May 23, 2014, ExxonMobil violated§ 589.201 of the Ukraine Related Sanctions Regulations when the presidents of its U.S. subsidiaries dealt in services of an individual whose property and interests in property were blocked, namely, by signing eight legal documents related to oil and gas projects in Russia with Igor Sechin, the President of Rosneft OAO, 1 and an individual identified on OF AC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the “SDN List”) (referred to hereinafter as an “SDN”)” (U.S. Treasury, 20.07.2017).
“OF AC considered the following to be aggravating factors: (1) ExxonMobil demonstrated reckless disregard for U.S. sanctions requirements when it failed to consider warning signs associated with dealing in the blocked services of an SDN; (2) ExxonMobil’s senior-most executives knew of Sechin’ s status as an SDN when they dealt in the blocked services of Sechin; (3) ExxonMobil caused significant harm to the Ukraine-related sanctions program objectives by engaging the services of an SDN designated on the basis that he is an official of the Government of the Russian Federation contributing to the crisis in Ukraine; and (4) ExxonMobil is a sophisticated and experienced oil and gas company that has global operations and routinely deals in goods, services, and technology subject to U.S economic sanctions and U.S. export controls” (U.S. Treasury, 20.07.2017).
So it’s okay, the company ExxonMobile was fined for intervening in a Republic and inside a state where there was clear sanctions against trade. That was something Rex Tillerson knew and also the Russian counterparts, but ExxonMobile didn’t care. They just wanted the profits and earn on the fragile arctic and also into areas like the annexed Crimea. This shows the intent of profiting while being under sanctions and not respecting the laws of the United States and being a registered company residing in the United States.
This show the ethical backdrop of the New York Gang and the Administration of today, we cannot know how much the company earned before the stop between Rosneft and ExxonMobile. The suspension of activity between them. What we can imagine is that it was vastly more than the little they paid for breaking the law. Peace.
Reference:
Gilbert, Daniel – ‘Sanctions Over Ukraine Put Exxon at Risk’ (11.09.2014) – Wall Street Journal
MinBane 