The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week deleted four Liberia-flagged oil tankers from its Specially Designated Nationals List. The vessels were sanctioned for their ties to the Vista Clara Shipping Corp. and Azul Vista Shipping Corp., companies sanctioned last year for their ties to an oil smuggling network overseen by Viktor Artemov, a person who has provided support to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quad Force. OFAC didn’t immediately release more information.
OFAC sanction activity
The U.S. this week sanctioned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, and updated the sanctions listing for the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, an agency involved in wrongfully detaining U.S citizens. The Treasury Department said Ahmadinejad supervised the ministry during his time as president, and wrongfully detained former FBI special agent Robert Levinson and three U.S. hikers. The two designations came as Iran released five U.S. citizens who have been imprisoned in the country, some for years, as part of a deal with the U.S. to unfreeze nearly $6 billion in Iranian funds to be used for humanitarian relief (see 2308150072).
The U.S. this week announced new Russia-related sanctions, designating more than 150 Russian business people, government officials, financial institutions, technology suppliers and foreign companies for supplying Russia with controlled goods or aiding the government. The sanctions include nearly 100 new designations imposed by the Treasury Department and more than 70 designations by the State Department and are designed to undermine Russia’s military supply chains, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
The upcoming U.S. outbound investment restrictions (see 2308090066 and 2308100045) should be overseen by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, not the agency that heads the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Republicans said this week. Several lawmakers, including Patrick McHenry, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, said the new outbound investment restrictions are similar to a sanctions program as opposed to the case-by-case review process overseen by CFIUS for inbound investments, and said OFAC is better suited to prevent China from benefiting from sensitive American investments.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four people and three entities operating as “key” Hezbollah operatives and financial facilitators in South America and Lebanon. The designations target Amer Mohamed Akil Rada, Samer Akil Rada, Mahdy Akil Helbawi and Ali Ismail Ajrouch. The agency also sanctioned Venezuela-based BCI Technologies C.A., which is managed by Rada; Colombia-based Zangan S.A.S., managed by Helbawi; and Lebanon-based Black Diamond SARL, owned by Ajrouch.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 11 people involved in the Russia-based Trickbot cybercrime group, which has targeted the U.S. government and American companies, the agency said. The designations target Andrey Zhuykov, a senior administrator with the group, along with other key members Maksim Galochkin, Maksim Rudenskiy, Mikhail Tsarev, Dmitry Putilin, Maksim Khaliullin, Sergey Loguntsov, Vadym Valiakhmetov, Artem Kurov, Mikhail Chernov and Alexander Mozhaev.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control published a previously issued general license under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of the license is available in the notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, a leader with the Rapid Support Forces in South Sudan, for his involvement in a militia group that has committed human rights abuses in the country. OFAC earlier this year sanctioned people and companies connected to the country’s ongoing military conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (see 2306010064). Since the conflict started in April, OFAC said both sides have “failed to implement a ceasefire” and “have been credibly accused of extensive human rights abuses in Darfur and elsewhere.”
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published four previously issued general licenses under its Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Sanctions Regulations. The text of each license is available in the Federal Register notice.