The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week announced a $7.1 million penalty against a New York-based property management firm for receiving payments from another company owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch and metals industry magnate Oleg Deripaska. OFAC said the New York company, Gracetown, Inc., failed to report the blocked assets to OFAC for 45 months after the agency notified the firm that the payments risked violating U.S. sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned people and entities associated with Tren de Aragua, a Latin America-based criminal group that the U.S. labeled a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and Foreign Terrorist Organization in February (see 2502190011).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control and Chicago-based private equity firm IPI Partners reached a nearly $11.5 million settlement to resolve accusations that the firm violated sanctions against Russia through its business dealings involving a designated Russian oligarch.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Nov. 24 updated its sanctions entry for Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles to reflect the group's recent designation by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (see 2511210003). OFAC sanctioned the group in July (see 2507270002).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued a maximum $4.67 million fine against a real estate investor for mortgaging, renovating, and selling a real estate property owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch’s family member.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new general license Nov. 21 that authorizes certain transactions with Paks II Civil Nuclear Power Plant, a Hungary-based power plant made with certain Russian-origin technology. General License 132 allows certain transactions involving the plant and 12 Russian banks and financial institutions, including Gazprombank, Sovcombank, Russia's National Clearing Center and the Central Bank of Russia. The license has no expiration date.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted three people from its Specially Designated Nationals List this week: Mounir Ben Habib Jarraya, Tatiana Ryabikova and Vladimir Santic. Jarraya was sanctioned in 2003 for ties to terrorism, and Ryabikova was sanctioned in 2022 for being an employee of Viktor Artemov, who was designated for helping to export Iranian oil. The reason for Santic's original U.S. designation is unclear, although he was convicted more than two decades ago for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, an ad hoc U.N. court that was established to prosecute war crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars. OFAC didn't release information about why they were removed from the SDN List.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned dozens of people, entities and ships that are helping to move and sell oil for the Iranian government and fund its military. The designations target companies and people in the United Arab Emirates, Panama, Greece, India, Germany and other countries, and six ships flying the flags of Panama, Gambia and Palau for providing logistics services for the sales, acting as front companies for the sales, helping to charter vessels and more.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week sanctioned Media Land, a Russia-based hosting service provider, for supporting ransomware operations and other cybercrimes. The two countries also sanctioned Media Land employees and associates Aleksandr Volosovik, Kirill Zatolokin and Yulia Pankova and a Media Land sister company, ML.Cloud.