The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned James Kabarebe, Rwanda’s state minister for regional integration, who the agency said is “central” to the country’s support for the March 23 Movement (M23), a designated armed group responsible for human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. OFAC also sanctioned Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, a senior member of M23 and the Congo River Alliance, a U.S.-sanctioned coalition of rebel groups looking to overthrow the DRC government.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated the sanctions entries for several Latin America-based criminal groups to reflect the State Department's labeling of them as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists (see 2502190011). OFAC revised the Specially Designated Nationals List entries for Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Gulf Cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cartel del Noreste (also known as Los Zetas), MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua.
The State Department has designated eight Latin America-based criminal groups as Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the agency said in a pair of Federal Register notices released this week. The designations, which took effect Feb. 6, target Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13), Cartel de Sinaloa, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Feb. 13 sanctioned Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court. The designation came days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against people and entities linked to the ICC, including for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials accused of war crimes in Gaza (see 2502070022). OFAC didn’t release more information about the designation.
President Donald Trump has nominated John Hurley to be undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial crimes and Thomas DiNanno to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, the White House told the Senate Feb. 11.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its license application portal with new functionality for people and organizations applying for sanctions licenses, the agency announced this week. The portal now allows users to create an account, which will let them save and return to an application in progress, view a list of their applications and case statuses in a single dashboard, save frequently used contacts for “easier data entry,” replicate a previous application, and more. Users who register for an account will need to enter a sign-in email and create a password, OFAC said.
Molly Miller, a former chief of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's enforcement division, has joined Bank of America as its managing director for global economic sanctions, Miller announced on LinkedIn. She most recently worked for Capital One after leaving OFAC in 2015.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized an aircraft used by sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) at the request of the U.S. government due to alleged sanctions and export control violations, DOJ announced.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control officially retired its RSS feed Jan. 31, the agency said in a notice this week (see 2411220009). The agency continues to provide updates about recent sanctions by email, and users can sign up for those updates. Technical support questions should be sent to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of people, companies and ships that it said are moving millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil to China on behalf of the Iranian military and a sanctioned front company, Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars (see 2311290034).