The Department of the Treasury last week dropped sanctions against cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash following a review of the "novel legal and policy issues raised by use of financial sanctions against financial and commercial activity occurring within evolving technology and legal environments." Treasury told a Texas court it removed Tornado Cash from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, arguing that a case against the sanctions listing should now be briefed on whether the issue is moot (Van Loon, et al. v. Department of the Treasury, W.D. Tex. # 23-00312).
The U.S. is giving oil company Chevron more time to wind down certain oil activities in Venezuela that had been authorized by an Office of Foreign Assets Control general license, OFAC said March 24.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned an oil refinery and its CEO for buying and refining hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil, including from vessels linked to the Yemen-based Houthis.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week finalized a rule to extend the agency’s sanctions-related recordkeeping requirements from five years to 10 years, aligning those rules with a similar expansion of the statute of limitations for civil and criminal violations of U.S. sanctions (see 2407220022 and 2404290071). The changes, outlined in an interim final rule published in September (see 2409110017), take effect March 21.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez, a “key leader” of a Guatemala-based criminal group that it said has smuggled thousands of migrants from Guatemala through Mexico and into the U.S. OFAC said Hernandez Perez leads the “Lopez Human Smuggling Organization,” which was previously sanctioned in July (see 2407250042).
The Treasury Department this week issued a new alert about the risks faced by U.S. and foreign financial institutions from sanctioned international cartels. The alert highlights the Trump administration’s increased enforcement focus on cartels, including its decision earlier this year to label several Latin America-based criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists (see 2502190011 and 2502200019).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned the Foxtrot Network, a transnational criminal group based in Sweden, along with its leader Rawa Majid. OFAC said the group has trafficked illegal drugs and "carried out attacks on Israelis and Jews in Europe," including a January 2024 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm on behalf of the Iranian government. The agency said the designations build on President Donald Trump's February memo that ordered U.S. agencies to pursue a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran (see 2502050020).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week updated several general licenses related to the Yemen-based Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, the group designated by the Trump administration as a foreign terrorist organization (see 2503040008).
The House Financial Services Committee unanimously approved several bills March 5 dealing with foreign investment and sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on March 6 again extended a general license that continues to delay an exemption that would authorize certain transactions related to Petroleos de Venezuela, the country’s state-owned energy company. General License 5R, which replaced GL 5Q, now authorizes certain transactions with PdVSA involving an 8.5% bond on or after July 3. The previous license was set to allow those transactions to occur on or after March 7.