The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Kale Kayihura, the former inspector general of police of the Ugandan Police Force, for leading an entity involved in human rights abuses and corruption, Treasury said in a Sept. 13 press release. Kayihura and members of Uganda’s Flying Squad Unit abused detainees at the Nalufenya Special Investigations Center and after they'd been subjected to the abuse, offered them money if they confessed to crimes, Treasury said. Kayihura also used bribery to improve his political position within the Ugandan government and stole funds intended for government use, the press release said. Kayihura was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
OFAC sanction activity
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three North Korean state-run hacking groups responsible for supporting the country’s illegal weapons and missile programs, Treasury said in a Sept. 13 press release. The cyber groups -- Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel -- work on behalf of North Korea to conduct “cyber espionage, data theft, monetary heists and destructive malware operations,” Treasury said.
A U.S. website infrastructure company said it may have violated U.S. sanctions and export reporting requirements, according to its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cloudflare, based in California, told the SEC it voluntarily disclosed possible export and sanctions violations to the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control this year. The violations included submitting “incorrect information” about hardware exports to Commerce and receiving payments from people and entities on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Sept. 10 that “strengthens and expands” the State and Treasury departments' sanctions authorities against terrorists, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a notice. Among several changes, the order allows the U.S. to impose “correspondent account or payable-through account sanctions” on foreign banks that “knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction” for a U.S. sanctioned global terrorist, OFAC said.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control updated a frequently asked question and issued two new FAQs to provide guidance on the “bunkering of non-Iranian and Iranian vessels carrying goods to or from Iran,” OFAC said in a Sept. 5 notice. The FAQs address various scenarios when providing bunkering services to: Iranian ships, non-Iranian ships carrying sanctioned cargo, and non-Iranian ships carrying non-sanctioned cargo to or from Iran.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is seeking comments on its continuing information collection for its Hizballah Financial Sanctions Regulations Report on Closure by U.S. Financial Institutions of Correspondent Accounts and Payable-Through Accounts, OFAC said in a notice. OFAC is seeking comments about whether the report is “necessary for the proper performance of the functions” of OFAC, the “accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the burden of the collection of information,” ways to “enhance the quality” of the information collection, ways to “minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents and estimated costs “of services to provide information.” Comments are due Nov. 5.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a shipping network that moves hundreds of millions of dollars of oil for Iran, Treasury said in a Sept. 4 press release. The network includes dozens of ship managers, ships and “facilitators” overseen by Rostam Qasemi, a senior Iranian military official and the country’s former minister of petroleum. The sanctions target 16 entities, 10 people and 11 ships.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on three Iranian entities and made changes to one entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List, according to a Sept. 3 sanctions notice. The action targets Astronautics Research Institute, the Iran Space Agency and the Iran Space Research Center. OFAC also added identifying information for Alfredo Leyva Beltran, a Mexican national listed with the Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker Kingpin (SDNTK) indication. OFAC did not immediately provide more details.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned an oil tanker that shipped more than 2 million barrels of Iranian crude oil to aid Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, Treasury said in an Aug. 30 press release. The tanker, Adrian Darya 1, and its captain, Akhilesh Kumar, are being sanctioned for providing support to terrorism, Treasury said. Treasury said the IRGC-QF’s “highest-ranking officials” oversee exports of Iran’s oil and hide its origin, sending it to Syria or “IRGC-QF proxies across the region.” The ship, formerly known as Grace 1, was recently detained by Gibraltar and released over U.S. objections (see 1908190036).
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published the Nicaraguan Sanctions Regulations, detailing what transactions are blocked and exempted and listing penalties for violations of the sanctions, OFAC said in a notice. The agency said it plans to release a “more comprehensive” guidance, general licenses and policy statements about the regulations. The sanctions take effect Sept. 4.