The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated people and entities involved in a smuggling network that funds Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Houthis in Yemen, OFAC said June 10. The agency sanctioned seven people, four entities and one vessel, including Iran-based Houthi financier Sa’id al-Jamal. The network helps generate tens of millions of dollars from the sale of petroleum and other commodities, OFAC said.
Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions policy adviser at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined public strategy firm Mercury as managing director of its Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced in a June 9 email. At OFAC, Kucik helped establish and implement new regulatory systems for different OFAC programs, including for executive orders, license authorizations and international sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four people for supporting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s regime as it undermines democracy and violates human rights, the agency said June 9. The sanctions target Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo, the coordinator of the Creative Economy Commission and daughter of Ortega; Leonardo Ovidio Reyes Ramirez, president of the Central Bank of Nicaragua; National Assembly Deputy Edwin Ramon Castro Rivera; and Julio Modesto Rodriguez Balladares, a brigadier general in the Nicaraguan Army and executive director of the Military Social Welfare Institute. OFAC Director Andrea Gacki said the agency will “continue to expose those officials who continue to ignore the will of its citizens.”
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President Joe Biden issued a new executive order expanding a Trump-era policy that banned investments in Chinese military companies (see 2105190009). The order, issued June 3, includes an initial list of 59 entities and expands the scope of the restrictions to cover companies operating in China’s surveillance technology sector, which the White House said produces technologies to commit human rights violations against Muslim minorities.
The U.S. sanctioned six Bulgarians and 64 entities for their “extensive roles in corruption" in Bulgaria, the Treasury and State departments said June 2. OFAC said the designations represented the “single largest action targeting corruption to date” and demonstrated the agency’s commitment to sanctioning corrupt business networks. The measures target former and current Bulgarian government officials -- Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, Delyan Slavchev Peevski and Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov -- along with 64 of their entities. The State Department also announced that it designated Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev and Krasimir Tomov, as well as Peevski and Zhelyazkov, for corruption.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a general license authorizing transactions between certain companies and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, OFAC said June 1. General License No. 8H, which replaces No. 8G (see 2011170015), authorizes transactions between PdVSA and Chevron, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International, with certain restrictions, through 12:01 a.m. EST Dec. 1. The license was scheduled to expire June 3.
Dave Stetson, former senior lawyer at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Steptoe & Johnson's International Trade and Regulatory Compliance Group as a partner in the New York office, the firm announced in a June 1 news release. Stetson previously served as the lead sanctions lawyer for Goldman Sachs' global business lines. At OFAC, Stetson was an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Chief Counsel, where he conducted reviews for OFAC licenses and advised on the drafting of sanctions statutes, executive orders and regulations.
Tina Chen, a resident of Las Vegas and owner of electronics and computer components exporter Top One Zone, was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to export goods from the U.S. to Iran, the Department of Justice said in a May 28 news release. Chen allegedly worked with others to purchase and ship goods from U.S. companies through entities in Hong Kong to individuals in Iran without a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Chen hid the identities of the end-users, DOJ alleged. She is charged with one count of conspiracy to unlawfully export goods to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations -- a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
In complying with a May 25 U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia order to remove the “Communist Chinese military company” designation from Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a FAQ May 27 saying that the prohibitions under the designation “do not apply with respect to Xiaomi.” The Defense Department and Xiaomi jointly moved to drop the label after District Judge Rudolph Contreras said it violated the Administrative Procedure Act and was made on insufficient evidence (see 2105120047). To date, two other companies so labeled have challenged the designation in the D.C. district court, and one, Luokung Technologies, has been granted a preliminary injunction.