OFAC

The U.S., the U.K. and Canada last week issued a range of new sanctions to mark the internationally recognized Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, designating people across more than 10 jurisdictions for their ties to human rights violations. They include U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials with ties to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including one designated under the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 15 Mexican people and two companies linked to the Beltran Leyva Organization, one of the world’s “most powerful” drug trafficking groups. The designations were announced during a trip by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Mexico City, where she discussed strengthening U.S.-Mexican efforts to counter fentanyl trafficking, and came after the agency launched a new, multi-agency Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force that it said will improve how the U.S. targets drug traffickers with sanctions and civil and criminal penalties.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Nov. 21 announced a $968 million settlement with Binance, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange, for allegedly violating multiple U.S. sanctions programs when the company allowed people who were either subject to sanctions or located in sanctioned jurisdictions to use its platform. OFAC said Binance senior management knew they were illegally allowing sanctioned users to access its online exchange platform and took steps to “undermine” the company’s own compliance procedures.

The American and British agencies in charge of sanctions implementation have “worked more closely than ever” during the last year and are planning to share more data, issue additional guidance and better harmonize their sanctions measures, they said last week. They also announced a plan to embed an official within the other country’s agency to help train and learn about each side's respective sanctions procedures.

The U.S. and the U.K. this week released a new round of sanctions against people and entities helping to finance the terror group Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The designations target various PIJ and Hamas officials, a Lebanon-based money exchange company and others.

The Canadian government should release more sanctions guidance to lower the business uncertainty that has spiked since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and the implementation of Canada’s new deemed ownership rules in June, lawyers said at a conference this week. A Canadian official said the government is working on guidance but stressed that the wide scope of the country’s sanctions laws, particularly against Russia, is unlikely to change.

An Illinois-based financial services firm reached a $206,213 settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control this week after the company allowed its prepaid reward card programs to be used by people in sanctioned regions, including Iran, Syria, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. OFAC said Swift Prepaid Solutions’ lack of “comprehensive geolocation controls” led to 12,391 violations of U.S. sanctions programs.

The U.S. this week announced a spate of new Russia-related sanctions and export controls, targeting people and companies supplying Russia’s military, aiding its defense industrial complex or operating in various Russian financial, metals, government and procurement sectors. The measures include additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and more than 200 combined sanctions by the Treasury and State departments targeting businesses in China, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere for sending export-controlled components to Russia.

The U.S., the U.K. and Canada issued new sanctions this week against Myanmar, targeting various entities and officials with ties to the country’s military regime and its purchase of weapons.

The U.S. this week sanctioned 11 people, eight entities and one vessel with ties to Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs. The Treasury, Commerce and State departments, along with DOJ, also published a new advisory to alert global companies about Iran’s ballistic missile procurement activities.