The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a North Korea-based hacker along with a Russian national and several related companies for helping to employ North Korean information technology workers abroad.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a global audio electronics company $1,454,145 for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions, accusing its employees of shipping goods to a United Arab Emirates distributor that they knew would then sell the items in Iran.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week revised and extended a Venezuela-related license that authorizes certain transactions related to liquefied petroleum gas. General License 40D, which replaces 40C, authorizes certain transactions that are "ordinarily incident and necessary to the delivery and offloading" of liquefied petroleum gas in Venezuela involving the government, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela or any entity owned 50% or more by PdVSA. Those transactions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. ET Sept. 5 as long as the liquefied petroleum gas was loaded on a vessel on or before July 7.
A California-based digital interface design company said in its initial public offering this month that it may have violated U.S. sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned a network of people, entities and ships for transporting and buying billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil, some of which has benefited Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. OFAC said some of companies are run by Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said, who the agency said smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil.
The U.S. last week sanctioned seven senior officials and one entity linked to the Hezbollah-controlled and sanctioned financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan. The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the officials served in senior management roles for Al-Qard Al-Hassan and have helped it evade U.S. sanctions, allowing Hezbollah to access the "formal financial system."
Key Holding, a Delaware-based logistics company, was fined $608,825 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions on Cuba. OFAC said the company’s Colombian subsidiary illegally managed the logistics for 36 freight shipments from Colombia to Cuba.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, introduced a resolution June 27 urging the use of “targeted economic sanctions” against entities and individuals in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo who are “corrupt, obstructing peace, perpetrating violence, or committing human rights abuses.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed sanctions from Gold Miles Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company designated in 2023. The firm was sanctioned for being owned by Ireland national John Desmond Hanafin, owner of Huriya Private FZE LLE, which OFAC sanctioned for helping to move Russian financial assets into the United Arab Emirates. OFAC didn't release more information about the delisting.