The U.S. this week sanctioned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, and updated the sanctions listing for the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, an agency involved in wrongfully detaining U.S citizens. The Treasury Department said Ahmadinejad supervised the ministry during his time as president, and wrongfully detained former FBI special agent Robert Levinson and three U.S. hikers. The two designations came as Iran released five U.S. citizens who have been imprisoned in the country, some for years, as part of a deal with the U.S. to unfreeze nearly $6 billion in Iranian funds to be used for humanitarian relief (see 2308150072).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week updated one Syria- and one Iran-related entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The agency updated identifying information for Atif Najib, a former Syrian military official, and Hosein Salimi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The U.S. and its allies last week sanctioned various people and entities involved in the Iranian regime’s suppression of protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s Morality Police last year.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four people and three entities operating as “key” Hezbollah operatives and financial facilitators in South America and Lebanon. The designations target Amer Mohamed Akil Rada, Samer Akil Rada, Mahdy Akil Helbawi and Ali Ismail Ajrouch. The agency also sanctioned Venezuela-based BCI Technologies C.A., which is managed by Rada; Colombia-based Zangan S.A.S., managed by Helbawi; and Lebanon-based Black Diamond SARL, owned by Ajrouch.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 11 people involved in the Russia-based Trickbot cybercrime group, which has targeted the U.S. government and American companies, the agency said. The designations target Andrey Zhuykov, a senior administrator with the group, along with other key members Maksim Galochkin, Maksim Rudenskiy, Mikhail Tsarev, Dmitry Putilin, Maksim Khaliullin, Sergey Loguntsov, Vadym Valiakhmetov, Artem Kurov, Mikhail Chernov and Alexander Mozhaev.
Government officials from the U.S., Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the U.K. met last week to discuss Russia-related sanctions enforcement and efforts to “bolster ongoing oligarch asset forfeiture initiatives,” the Treasury Department said. The countries, part of the multilateral Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs Task Force, said they have completed an “initial effort to map and account for Russian sovereign assets” that are frozen and held in REPO member jurisdictions, the agency said, totaling about $280 billion.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said despite the fact that Russia has managed to use ships and insurance companies from countries that didn't agree to a price cap on Russian oil sales, the sanction is working.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control published a previously issued general license under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of the license is available in the notice.
President Joe Biden on Sept. 5 nominated Erik Woodhouse to lead the State Department's Office of Sanctions Coordination. Woodhouse currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary for counter threat finance and sanctions in the State Department's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, where he oversees the Office of Sanctions Policy and Implementation. The Senate in 2022 confirmed James O’Brien to lead the sanctions coordination office, which had gone without a leader since President Donald Trump disbanded it in 2017 (see 2204150049). The White House declined to comment about whether O'Brien is still leading the office and directed all questions to the State Department. A State Department spokesperson didn't immediately comment.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, a leader with the Rapid Support Forces in South Sudan, for his involvement in a militia group that has committed human rights abuses in the country. OFAC earlier this year sanctioned people and companies connected to the country’s ongoing military conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (see 2306010064). Since the conflict started in April, OFAC said both sides have “failed to implement a ceasefire” and “have been credibly accused of extensive human rights abuses in Darfur and elsewhere.”