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OFAC Issues Final Rule on Transnational Criminal Organizations

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a final rule, effective January 12, 2012, that creates a new Part 590 in 31 CFR to carry out the purposes of Executive Order 13581, "Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations," which blocks property in the U.S. or in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the TCOs1 have an interest, and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with such TCOs.

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OFAC states that these regulations are being issued in an "abbreviated form" and will be supplemented with a more comprehensive set of regulations that may include additional interpretive and definitional guidance as well as general licenses and statements of licensing policy. OFAC also is amending other regulations to clarify the availability of general licenses on OFAC’s Web site.

1The TCOs initially listed in the Annex to the EO are: The Brothers’ Circle (Eurasia); The Camorra (Italy); The Yakuza (Japan); and Los Zetas (Mexico).

(See ITT's Online Archives 11072705 for summary of EO 13581 as well as the Obama Administration's "TCO Strategy" that includes 56 priority actions, including (i) disrupting TCO activities in the supply chain and at the border, (ii) stemming counterfeits, and (iii) finalizing the "U.S. - Mexico 21st Century Border Action Plan.")