The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three Nicaragua-based entities for their ties to Russia or for earning revenue for President Daniel Ortega’s regime. The designations target the Training Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (RTC) in Managua, a subdivision of the Russian government’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as Compania Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anonima (COMINTSA) and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, Sociedad Anonima (Capital Mining), gold companies that generate revenue for the government.
Flywire, a U.S.-headquartered global payments company, may have violated U.S. sanctions against Cuba, Iran or Syria, it told the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated Russian national Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Beloglazovand and three of his companies for their involvement in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska evade U.S. sanctions. OFAC said the scheme was meant to unfreeze more than $1.5 billion worth of shares belonging to Deripaska.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week renewed a Venezuela-related general license to extend the current authorization for certain transactions with the country’s state-owned energy company. General License No. 8N, which replaces No. 8M (see 2311160051), authorizes certain transactions between Petroleos de Venezuela and Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International, with certain restrictions, through 12:01 a.m. EST Nov. 15. The license was scheduled to expire May 16.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control soon will make a range of changes to its reporting, procedures and penalties regulations, including one that will require electronic-only filings of certain documents and others that will add or clarify reporting requirements for certain blocked property or rejected transactions. The agency also clarified its definitions for “transaction” and “U.S. persons” after public commenters told OFAC they were unclear, clarified the types of information that must be reported for rejected transitions, and more.
Maurel & Prom received a specific license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control that authorizes certain activities involving Venezuela’s state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela, the Paris-headquartered oil company announced May 6.
The U.S., the U.K. and Australia this week sanctioned Russian national Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a leader of the Russia-based LockBit ransomware group, which the Office of Foreign Assets Control labeled “one of the most active ransomware groups in the world.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed the Swiss branch of Russia-headquartered bank Sberbank from the agency’s Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List, which lists entities operating in certain sanctioned sectors of the Russian economy. OFAC didn’t release more information.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week launched its new Sanctions List Service, an application the agency will use to issue sanctions list files and data to the public. OFAC said the SLS “provides users with easy access to the most up-to-date Sanctions Lists and Sanctions list data,” including from the Specially Designated Nationals List or the Consolidated non-SDNs List, “ready for immediate download.” Users also can search for sanctions entries on the SDN Lists and other lists maintained by OFAC.