The Biden administration recently announced a series of new sanctions measures against Russia that take aim at the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny and officials connected to the country’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
OFAC sanction activity
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 17 released a comprehensive list of the Belarusian people and entities it sanctioned Aug. 9 for human rights violations, corruption and other reasons. The notice includes identifying information for the new entries and reasons for each of the designations, some of which were made under the agency’s new Belarus sanctions authority (see 2108090033).
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fined one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange companies $100 million for failing to maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program, which violated the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a recent penalty notice. The violations also exposed other BitMEX compliance issues, including its deficient sanctions screening.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 13 sanctioned an Omani businessman and his companies for aiding an international oil smuggling network that supports Iran. The agency also designated more Cuban government officials and a military unit for human rights violations.
The Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a fact sheet this week highlighting the various exemptions and authorizations available for companies, people and exporters providing telecommunications goods and services to Cuba. The five-page guidance covers OFAC general licenses and BIS license exceptions and comes as the Biden administration tries to increase sanctions pressure on the Cuban government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in recent weeks (see 2107300063).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s designations of five people last week (see 2108060043) targeted terrorism leaders in Africa, the State Department said Aug. 6. The sanctions targeted leaders with the Islamic State group, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and al-Shabaab.
President Joe Biden issued a new executive order to expand existing U.S. sanctions authorities against Belarus and issued a host of new designations targeting the country’s government for last year’s “fraudulent” presidential elections. The Aug. 9 order authorizes sanctions against a broad range of government officials, oligarchs, entities and private companies, including those operating in Belarus’ defense, energy, security, potassium chloride, transportation and construction sectors. Sanctions are also authorized against people or entities with links to “public corruption” in Belarus or transactions deemed to be “deceptive or structured” to evade U.S. sanctions on behalf of the Belarusian government.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 6 added five people to its Specially Designated Nationals List for counter-terrorism reasons. The people are: Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, Salem ould Breihmatt, Sidan Ag Hitta, Bonomade Machude Omar and Ali Mohamed Rage. The people have connections to Somalia, Mozambique, Mauritania and Mali. OFAC didn’t immediately provide more information on the designations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Cuban police officials and a police agency for human rights violations stemming from the government’s recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, according to a July 30 news release. The designations target the Policia Nacional Revolucionaria and Director Oscar Alejandro Callejas Valcarce and Deputy Director Eddy Manuel Sierra Arias.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a range of sanctions targeting people and entities in Syria and Turkey for human rights abuses or for funding terrorism, OFAC said July 28. The first set of sanctions targeted Turkey-based al-Qaida financial facilitator Hasan Al-Shaban and Syria-based terrorism fundraiser Farrukh Furkatovitch Fayzimatov. Other designations targeted eight Syrian prisons controlled by the Bashar al-Assad regime, five senior Syrian security officials, the Syrian armed group Ahrar al-Sharqiya and Syria military intelligence agencies. OFAC also revised two existing Syria-related entries on its Specially Designated Nationals List.