President Donald Trump and the Department of the Treasury announced new Iran sanctions that target the country’s supreme leader and eight senior military officials, the White House said June 24.
OFAC sanction activity
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Nicaraguan government officials who allegedly “persecute Nicaraguan citizens,” “enact repressive laws,” silence the press and restrict medical care to the country’s people, Treasury said in a June 21 press release. OFAC is sanctioning Gustavo Eduardo Porras Cortes, Orlando Jose Castillo Castillo, Sonia Castro Gonzalez and Oscar Salvador Mojica Obregon.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is updating its Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations to change how parties file reports on blocked property, unblocked property and rejected transactions related to economic sanctions, OFAC said in a June 20 notice. The amended regulations, to be published in the June 21 Federal Register, also detail revisions to OFAC’s electronic license application procedures, the availability of its records under the Freedom of Information Act and other “certain technical and conforming changes,” OFAC said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control will end its practice of allowing sanctions violators to satisfy OFAC penalties through payments to other agencies, changing how it calculates penalties in investigations that involve more than one enforcement agency, OFAC Director Andrea Gacki said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Russian Financial Society, a Russian financial services entity, after OFAC said it helped North Korea evade U.S. sanctions, Treasury said in a June 19 press release. Russian Financial Society provided or attempted to provide “financial, material, technological, or other support for” U.S.-sanctioned Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co. Ltd, the press release said. Dandong Zhongsheng is owned by Foreign Trade Bank, North Korea’s “primary foreign exchange bank,” which is sanctioned by both the U.S. and the United Nations, Treasury said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $40,000 settlement with Cubasphere and an unnamed individual for violating the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, OFAC said in a June 13 enforcement notice.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a more than $220,000 settlement with Spain-based Hotelbeds USA for helping more than 700 people with Cuba-related travel services that violated the Cuba Assets Control Regulations, OFAC said in a June 13 enforcement notice.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $325,000 settlement with Expedia Group Inc. for helping more than 2,000 people with “Cuba-related travel services” that OFAC said violated the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, according to a June 13 enforcement notice.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Iraq-based South Wealth Resources Company (SWRC), the “financial conduit” for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps-Qods Force, Treasury said in a June 12 press release. Treasury said SWRC has trafficked “hundreds of millions of dollars” in weapons to Iraqi militias. OFAC also sanctioned two SWRC associates, Makki Kazim ‘Abd Al Hamid Al Asadi and Mohammed Hussein Salih Al Hasani, for facilitating the IRGC’s access to Iraq’s financial system to evade U.S. sanctions. SWRC and its two associates are being sanctioned as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, the press release said.
The State Department is upholding a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for Shining Path, a narcotics-trafficking group based in Peru, State said in a notice scheduled to be published June 12 in the Federal Register. Circumstances surrounding the group’s designation have not changed and there is no reason to revoke the designation, the notice said. Shining Path was sanctioned in 2015 for operating as a terrorist group committed to the overthrow of Peru’s government, OFAC said in a press release at the time.