President Donald Trump on Feb. 26 said he is reversing certain sanctions relief provided to Venezuela by the Biden administration as part of an “oil transaction agreement” signed in November 2022. That date was when the Office of Foreign Assets Control granted U.S. oil company Chevron a general license to resume certain oil activities in Venezuela, which was intended to support the newly restarted negotiations between Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s regime and the country’s opposition party (see 2211280042).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong that have helped to supply drone parts to sanctioned Iranian firms. OFAC said the companies “facilitate the purchase and shipment of key unmanned aerial vehicle components to Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra, sanctioned in 2019, and its subsidiary Narin Sepehr Mobin Isatis, which supply Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile programs.
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 30 people, entities and ships helping to sell and move Iranian petroleum products, including oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker managers in India and China, and Iranian oil officials. The Treasury Department said the newly designated tankers have helped ship tens of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control launched a new “file finder” function that allows users to search and “efficiently navigate” all content published on the agency’s website. The search function, published Feb. 20, allows users to search for general licenses, Federal Register notices, executive orders and other legal documents, press charts, advisories, specific guidance and “many other records.” Users can search by document title, document type and the contents of each document. Questions should be directed to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned James Kabarebe, Rwanda’s state minister for regional integration, who the agency said is “central” to the country’s support for the March 23 Movement (M23), a designated armed group responsible for human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. OFAC also sanctioned Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, a senior member of M23 and the Congo River Alliance, a U.S.-sanctioned coalition of rebel groups looking to overthrow the DRC government.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated the sanctions entries for several Latin America-based criminal groups to reflect the State Department's labeling of them as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists (see 2502190011). OFAC revised the Specially Designated Nationals List entries for Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Gulf Cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cartel del Noreste (also known as Los Zetas), MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua.
The State Department has designated eight Latin America-based criminal groups as Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the agency said in a pair of Federal Register notices released this week. The designations, which took effect Feb. 6, target Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13), Cartel de Sinaloa, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Feb. 13 sanctioned Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court. The designation came days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against people and entities linked to the ICC, including for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials accused of war crimes in Gaza (see 2502070022). OFAC didn’t release more information about the designation.
President Donald Trump has nominated John Hurley to be undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial crimes and Thomas DiNanno to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, the White House told the Senate Feb. 11.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its license application portal with new functionality for people and organizations applying for sanctions licenses, the agency announced this week. The portal now allows users to create an account, which will let them save and return to an application in progress, view a list of their applications and case statuses in a single dashboard, save frequently used contacts for “easier data entry,” replicate a previous application, and more. Users who register for an account will need to enter a sign-in email and create a password, OFAC said.