California-based machine tool manufacturer Haas Automation will pay more than $2.5 million to the U.S. government after being accused of illegally shipping parts and other items to sanctioned and Entity Listed companies in China and Russia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two people and four entities for helping the North Korean government earn revenue overseas, including through information technology workers stationed around the world.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a Miami-based real estate firm and its owner more than $1 million after the agency said they helped two sanctioned Russian oligarchs transfer their luxury condominiums to their non-sanctioned family members. The firm, Family International Realty LLC, “engaged in a willful scheme” to evade U.S. sanctions against Russia, OFAC said, and earned about $180,000 in commission fees for helping to manage the properties.
The U.S. this week issued a host of new Russia-related sanctions, designating nearly 100 entities as Russia-related secondary-sanctions risks and a range of other people and companies that it said are helping Russia evade sanctions. The Treasury Department sanctions specifically target a “sanctions evasion scheme” helping people in Russia and China make international payments for sensitive goods and a Kyrgyzstan bank also helping Russia evade sanctions, while new State Department sanctions target more than 150 entities and people, including in China, for supporting Russia’s military industrial base.
Gina Sokolovs, a former financial crime compliance associate with financial services firm Societe Generale, has joined the Office of Foreign Assets Control as a sanctions implementation and investigation specialist, she announced on LinkedIn. Sokolovs previously worked as a policy consultant with DHS in 2021.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation, the agency said in a notice this week. The new amounts include higher maximum penalties for violations of the Trading With the Enemy Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and the Clean Diamond Trade Act. The agency also updated two references to “one-half the IEEPA maximum" penalty, which changed from $184,068 to $188,850. OFAC also adjusted the record-keeping penalty amounts in the agency's Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines. The changes take effect Jan. 15.
An indictment was unsealed on Jan. 7 charging three Russian nationals for their role in a scheme to operate the "cryptocurrency mixing services" Blender.io and Sinbad.io, both of which have been sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ announced.
The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged the Biden administration late Jan. 10 to reimpose all sanctions lifted on Venezuela since November 2022.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted more than 20 entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List this week, including people and entities tied to Switzerland, Venezuela, Malta, Panama, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and elsewhere.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published a memorandum of understanding with the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation that the two agencies are using to share information about national security threats and collaborate on sanctions enforcement and compliance. The memorandum, dated October 2024, builds on a partnership the two sides started in 2022, which has included swapping officials as part of an employee embed program, working together on sanctions guidance and better harmonizing their designations (see 2411190025 and 2311170038).