Over the past few years, OFAC and other U.S. federal agencies have exacted significant penalties on U.S. and non-U.S. financial institutions for certain violations of U.S. sanctions programs. But unless one was apt to engage in their own independent record-keeping of these penalties, it would have proven hitherto impossible to know the full amount collected by U.S. federal agencies or for what purposes the collected funds have been directed.

Not so true anymore. Last week, the GAO released a report titled “Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures for Violations of Financial Crimes and Sanctions Requirements” that provides some much-needed accounting as to the sums that OFAC and other U.S. federal agencies are taking in as a result of U.S. sanctions violations — at least as to financial institutions.

According to the GAO’s report, the U.S. government took in “about $6.8 billion for violations of U.S. sanctions program requirements” between January 2009 to December 2015. However, OFAC itself “independently assessed $301 million in penalties against financial institutions” for sanctions violations during this same time period. That is a small fraction of the total sum assessed and collected against financial institutions for U.S. sanctions violations. (OFAC assessed 47 penalties against financial institutions – the largest penalty being that against Clearstream Banking for $152 million.) The U.S. Department of Justice – working alongside the U.S. Department of Treasury and other federal law enforcement agencies — assessed the vast amount of this total sum – around $5.7 billion for sanctions violations.

The most significant penalty was that assessed against BNP Paribas – in which the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture collected $3.8 billion from the French bank. The rest of the $8.8 billion penalty enforced against BNP Paribas by the DOJ went to state and local agencies (specifically, the New York County District Attorney’s Office and the NYS Department of Financial Services) and the Federal Reserve.

For what purposes are the penalties assessed and collected being used? The GAO report contains some information on this as well. When OFAC collects a penalty, for instance, the funds will be deposited into Treasury’s General Fund. The funds are then “used for the general support of federal government activities.” Determining how the funds are to be used to support the activities of the U.S. federal government lies at the sole discretion of the U.S. Congress, as OFAC officials “stated that they have no discretion over the use of the collections…and are unable to determine what subsequently happens to the money [after its inclusion in the Treasury’s General Fund].” Indeed, as the GAO report makes clear, “only an appropriation by Congress can begin the process of spending [the] funds [deposited in the Treasury’s General Fund].”

Why is this important? OFAC and other financial regulators have collected vast penalties from financial institutions over the past decade. Accounting for those penalties is a useful exercise in determining the full scope of these changes in U.S. sanctions policy. Even more importantly, Congress has recently signaled its willingness to use the funds collected for purposes other than general federal government expenditures. For instance, as part of the recent omnibus spending bill, Congress appropriated funds derived from the penalties collected for certain sanctions violations to those holding outstanding civil judgments against Iran for terrorism-related offenses.

As U.S. financial regulators continue to collect significant funds from financial crimes-related enforcement actions, it will be important to continue to track the penalties assessed and the total amount of funds collected and to identify the governmental purposes for which such funds are being used.