A large U.S. sanctions penalty earlier this month is a sign of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s rising compliance expectations for investment firms, accountants, wealth advisers and other financial “gatekeepers,” particularly if they’re aware that funds may be indirectly tied to a sanctioned person, law firms said. The fine, which was the largest OFAC penalty since 2023, also could begin a trend of tougher enforcement on those gatekeepers, law firms said, especially if they rely on wrong legal advice or don’t fully cooperate with OFAC.

A Texas-based industrial equipment supplier and its former CEO were fined millions of dollars for intentionally violating sanctions and export control laws, but the U.S. declined to prosecute its parent company after the firm voluntarily disclosed the violations and cooperated closely with DOJ’s investigation.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week fined California-based venture capital firm GVA Capital more than $215 million for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Russia and for failing to comply with an OFAC subpoena. The firm knowingly managed an investment for sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, OFAC said.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three vessels and their owners for supporting the Yemen-based Houthis and the group's attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, including by supplying them with oil shipments.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Chinese oil refinery Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co. Ltd. on April 16 for buying more than $1 billion worth of Iranian crude oil from “shadow fleet” vessels.

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 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).

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.

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.