The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six entities and two people in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and China responsible for buying drone parts for Iran-based Qods Aviation Industries, the leading manufacturer for the country's drone program. DOJ also announced charges against people and one company involved in the network after saying they illegally sent controlled U.S. technology to Iran.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six people and seven entities tied to the money laundering network supporting the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, which the agency called one of the “most notorious and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week updated a range of entries on its Specially Designated Nationals List to include the fact that they're a "secondary sanctions risk." The change impacts sanctioned people and entities with ties to China, Russia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and other regions. OFAC didn't immediately release more information.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned five people and three companies with ties to a Lebanon-based sanctions evasion network supporting the terror group Hezbollah.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security officials who OFAC said were involved in the abduction, detention and "probable death" of former FBI agent Robert Levinson. OFAC said Iranian officials Reza Amiri Moghadam, Gholamhossein Mohammadnia and Taqi Daneshvar "all played a role in Mr. Levinson’s abduction, probable death, and Iran’s efforts to cover up or obfuscate their responsibility." Levinson disappeared in Iran in 2007 while on a CIA mission.
The State and Treasury departments should form a task force to “robustly investigate and sanction” illicit gold trafficking networks, a watchdog group representative told a House panel March 25.
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.