The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control amended a general license related to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, according to a March 14 OFAC notice. The license allows transactions with PDV Holding and CITGO Holding, two oil companies and subsidiaries of Petroleos de Venezuela, the U.S.-sanctioned and Venezuela state-owned oil company. The license also allows transactions with PDV Holding’s and CITGO Holding’s subsidiaries. The license changes the expiration date to automatically renew on the first day of each month, the notice said, and is “valid for a period of 18 months from the effective date” of the general license “or the date of any subsequent renewal of (the license), whichever is later.” The license, General License No. 7A, replaces General License No. 7, which was issued Jan. 28.
The U.S., the European Union and Canada announced additional Russian sanctions stemming from Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to media reports and a March 15 announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added six people and eight entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List, OFAC said in a notice, while Canada reportedly imposed sanctions on 114 people and 15 entities and the EU targeted eight security service officials and military commanders. Individuals or companies who trade with any of the blocked people or entities may be penalized under U.S. sanctions.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control made changes to one of its sanctions lists, replacing the List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Part 561 with the List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Correspondent Account or Payable-Through Account (CAPTA) Sanctions, OFAC said in a March 14 notice. The new list contains foreign entities “for which the opening or maintaining of a correspondent account or a payable-through account” in the U.S. is restricted, OFAC said. Foreign entities on the list are subject to the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, the North Korea Sanctions Regulations, the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations and the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015. OFAC also amended the Iran and Hizballah financial sanctions regulations to include references to CAPTA, the agency said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 5-8 in case they were missed.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added an entity to its Specially Designated Nationals List, with a Venezuela-related designation, OFAC said in a March 11 notice. The entity, Evrofinance Mosnarbank, is associated with a Moscow address in Russia, according to the notice, and is linked to Petroleos de Venezuela, the Venezuelan state-owned and U.S.-sanctioned oil company.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control amended two general licenses related to Venezuelan sanctions, OFAC said in a March 8 notice, extending the expiration date of provisions allowing transactions that involve the “wind down of certain financial contracts” with Venezuela. The first general license includes a provision that permits the divestment or transfer of Venezuelan-related bonds as long as the trades were placed before 4 p.m. on Feb. 1. The second general license allows “facilitating, clearing, and settling transactions” involving divestiture of holdings in Petroleos de Venezuela, the U.S.-sanctioned Venezuelan oil company, for all transactions that were placed before 4 p.m. on Jan. 28. Both authorizations are permitted only if divestments or transfers are made to a non-U.S. person, OFAC said. Transactions are authorized until May 10.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control extended the expiration date of two general licenses related to GAZ Group, allowing certain transactions involving the sanctioned company until July 6, 2019, OFAC said in March 6 notice. The previous expiration date, issued in a Jan. 16 notice, was March 7. The sanctions against GAZ Group are Ukraine-related, and the company was designated as an “oligarch-owned” entity after OFAC said in a April 2018 notice that the company was owned or controlled by “Russian Machines” and oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who also is identified as having a large stake in Russian aluminum producer Rusal. The notice said GAZ Group is Russia’s “leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles.”
A recent fine on a U.S. company while simultaneously penalizing the manager of the company's foreign subsidiary after both violated sanctions on Iran seems reflective of the increasingly aggressive nature and number of U.S. enforcement actions taken on sanctions violations during the last few months, according to several Washington trade lawyers. The fine was called “unprecedented” in early February by the Department of the Treasury. After distributing just one penalty through the first eight months of 2018, the Office of Foreign Assets Control doled out six penalties during the last four months of 2018, according to the office's records. And two months through 2019, OFAC already has administered four penalties worth more than $7 million, according to the agency, including a $5.5 million penalty against the German subsidiary of an Illinois-based company on Feb. 14.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added one entity and made one change to its Specially Designated Nationals List, under Counter Terrorism designations, OFAC said in a March 5 notice. The office added Harakat Al-Nujaba, a terrorism group, and updated information on Arkam ‘Abbas Al-Kabi, an Iraqi national. The terrorist group is associated with Iraq and Syria, according to the notice.
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