The U.S. Treasury Department's penalty against an American consulting firm for collecting intelligence on behalf of a foreign client from inside Iran may hinder legitimate business and transactions with the Islamic Republic, say sources. On Thursday, the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, imposed a $260,000 civil fine against Phoenix-based IPSA International, a transnational risk-mitigation company that admitted to more than 70 separate violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. According to the 2-page civil penalty, an unidentified foreign government and a state-owned financial institution located in a second, unnamed foreign country separately retained IPSA and its Canadian subsidiary...
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