The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued General License No. 1 under the President's recent Executive Order, "Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya." General License No. 1 authorizes transactions with financial institutions owned or controlled by the Government of Libya that are organized under the laws of a country other than Libya. (See ITT's Online Archives or 02/28/11 news, 11022702, for BP summary of the EO.)
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is publishing the names of nine individuals and seven entities, including the New Ansari Money Exchange, whose property and interests in property have been blocked pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, effective February 18, 2011. (See ITT's Online Archives or 02/18/11 news, [11021860], for previous BP summary of these designations.)
The State Department has designated Sect of Revolutionaries aka SE aka Sekhta Epanastaton aka Sekta Epanastaton aka Secta Epanastaton aka Revolutionaries Sect aka Rebel Sect aka Armed Struggle for Revolutionary Independence Sect of Revolutionaries as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224. The Office of Foreign Assets Control has also updated its Specially Designated Nationals List to include this designation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control announces that on or about April 14, 2011, it will be expanding the width of its "City" field in its list of Specially Designated Nationals address data files (add.ff, add.del, add.csv, add.pip) from 112 characters to 116 characters. (OFAC previously announced that it will be publishing its list in XML and Comma delimited (CSV) format and would be expanding the width of its "City" field from 50 characters to 112 characters on or about March 14, 2011. See ITT's Online Archives or 02/14/11 news, 11021465, for BP summary.) The new specification for the SDN data files is available here.
The Treasury Department announces the designation of Colombian national Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa (aka Elkin de Jesus Lopez Salazar) and more than 70 individuals and entities in Cifuentes Villa’s drug trafficking and money laundering organization pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, which prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these entities and individuals and freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction. The Office of Foreign Assets Control has also updated its Specially Designated Nationals List to include these designations.
The Treasury Department announces the designation of two Iranian officials, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi and Mohammed Reza Naqdi, for being responsible for or complicit in serious human rights abuses in Iran, pursuant to Executive Order 13553, which blocks any property in the U.S. or in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the designees have an interest and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with them. The designees are also subject to visa sanctions by the State Department. The Office of Foreign Assets Control has also updated its Specially Designated Nationals List to include these designations.
The Treasury Department has designated the New Ansari Money Exchange, a major money laundering vehicle for Afghan narcotics trafficking organizations, along with 15 affiliated individuals and entities under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. U.S. persons are prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these individuals and entities, and any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen. The Office of Foreign Assets Control has also updated its Specially Designated Nationals list to include these designations.
The Treasury Department has designated Bank Refah for providing financial services to the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA). This action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which is aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their supporters, thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems. The Office of Foreign Assets Control has also updated its Specially Designated Nationals list to include this designation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing General License No. 3 under the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR Part 544, authorizing certain transactions related to the arrest, detention, and judicial sale of the MV First Ocean and the MV Second Ocean, which are two vessels on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list. These vessels are currently under arrest in Chiwan and Qingdao, China, respectively.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is publishing the names of two newly-designated individuals in Afghanistan whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13224, “Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten To Commit, or Support Terrorism," effective February 9, 2011. (See ITT's Online Archives or 02/09/11 news, 11020948, for previous BP summary of these designations.)