The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 28 updated a Belarus-related entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The update made changes to the entry for Oleg Leonidovich Slizhevsky, head of the Belarus Public Associations Department at the Ministry of Justice.
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The Treasury Department is seeking comments on an information collection relating to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations, the agency said in a notice. The regulations “pertain to the operation of various economic sanctions programs” administered by OFAC and are used to “monitor compliance” with regulatory requirements. Comments are due July 28.
The two Treasury Department nominees slated to oversee some of the agency’s sanctions work (see 2105260018) said they will prioritize Treasury’s ongoing sanctions review, but declined to commit to any specific actions related to Iran, China or the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Brian Nelson, the nominee to lead the Terrorism and Financial Intelligence office, and Elizabeth Rosenberg, the nominee to be assistant secretary for terrorist financing, told a Senate panel June 22 they will pursue strong penalties against sanctions evaders but want more information before committing to take specific actions.
The U.S. and several allies announced a host of new sanctions against people and entities responsible for the Belarusian government’s disputed 2020 presidential election and recent human rights abuses. The sanctions, coordinated with Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom, also target Belarus and President Alexander Lukashenko’s government for the forced diversion of a commercial plane last month to arrest a journalist, the U.S. Treasury and State Department said June 21. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also issued a new general license to authorize certain transactions with Belarus and published additional sanctions guidance.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued guidance and three new general licenses to expand humanitarian-related exemptions for shipments and activities in sanctioned countries. The licenses apply to Iran, Syria and Venezuela and are accompanied by six new frequently asked questions to “further support the critical work” of humanitarian and COVID-19 aid to people in sanctioned regions. The guidance comes amid criticism from humanitarian groups that U.S. sanctions continue to inadvertently block aid shipments (see 2105260047 and 2105280004).
More countries are using cryptocurrencies to evade U.S. sanctions, a troubling trend that could damage U.S. sanctions regimes if not managed correctly, sanctions experts told Congress this week. The experts said lawmakers should provide more funding to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to address the issue and should push for more public-private partnerships to help OFAC target cryptocurrency users.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a June 13 opinion rejected Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska's challenge to his sanctions listing, granting the Office of Foreign Assets Control's motion for summary judgment. Deripaska, who argued his listing as part of the wave of sanctions in the wake of Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 violated multiple procedural and constitutional rights. Deripaska claimed that OFAC violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights by “relying on undisclosed classified information and failing to provide him with adequately detailed unclassified summaries of that information.” Deripaska is a “non-resident alien who lacks sufficient contact with the United States” to bring a due process challenge, Judge Amit Mehta said. Mehta said that “even if the court were to consider Deripaska’s due process claim on the merits, it would reject it” because the International Emergency Economic Powers Act explicitly says that OFAC can rely on classified information in its determinations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 16 revised two entries on its Non-Specially Designated National Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List. OFAC changed the entries for the Aviation Industry Corp. of China, which was identified as a Chinese military company in June 2020 (see 2006250024), and China National Offshore Oil Corp., which was identified in December 2020 (see 2011300038).
Paul Marquardt joined Davis Polk as a partner in its Washington, D.C.-based Financial Institutions Group, the firm announced in a June 14 news release. Marquardt previously led the foreign investment and national security practice at Cleary Gottlieb, where he worked with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.