Buying a car used to be a relatively easy process. But now that the government and various consumer protection organizations have become involved in the transaction, it has become mind-numbing. Car dealerships must now comply with myriad rules and regulations that have escalated a simple purchase agreement into a series of documents that resemble closing a home purchase. And they don’t even take into consideration a form from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that administers and enforces an economic sanctions program primarily against countries and groups of individuals such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers. 

This recently happened to me and my wife: Once our names were provided to OFAC, we learned that neither of us were on the “no fly” list and thus we were not considered terrorists or flight risks (more about that later).

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