The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued a notice making a minor editorial correction involving its Cuban Assets Control Regulations. OFAC said the error occurred in a reference to its Cuba regulations in the most recent annual revision of the Code of Federal Regulations. The CFR referenced "515.565(d)" when it should have referenced "515.565(f)."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six Rwandan or Congolese nationals contributing to the “escalation of conflict” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. OFAC said each belongs to one of four armed groups causing instability in the DRC's eastern portion and committing “serious” human rights abuses.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week expanded its Myanmar sanctions regime to cover the country’s jet fuel sector and sanctioned people and companies involved in procuring and distributing jet fuel to Myanmar’s military regime.
The Biden administration’s road to implement regulations for its outbound investment executive order will be “incredibly complex,” particularly if agencies disagree on how narrow or broad to scope the restrictions,Thomas Feddo, a former Treasury Department official, said during a webinar this week. Lawyers on the webinar said investors are “very concerned” about the rules having a potential “chilling” effect on a broad range of investments, especially if the government fails to adequately define a range of key terms in the executive order.
The U.S. this week sanctioned two Syria-based armed militias and three of their leaders for their involvement in “gross” human rights violations against people living in northern Syria’s Afrin region. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned an auto sales company owned by one of the leaders.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four people involved in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. OFAC said Alexey Alexandrovich Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ivan Vladimirovich Osipov and Vladimir Alexandrovich Panyaev are Russian Federal Security Service operatives who were reported to be involved in the attack on Navalny. All four were previously sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act of 2012 for their ties to “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals seeking to expose illegal activity carried out” by Russia, the agency said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Lebanon-based organization and its leader for providing support for Hezbollah’s operations while acting under the guise of an environmental organization. The entity, Green Without Borders, was created in 2013 to protect Lebanon’s “natural environment” but is a “cover” for Hezbollah’s activities in southern Lebanon along the Blue Line, where Green Without Borders has outposts that are staffed by Hezbollah officials and underground warehouses and munitions storage tunnels that allow Hezbollah members to train. The agency also sanctioned Zuhair Subhi Nahla, the leader of Green Without Borders.
American building materials supplier Construction Specialties Inc. (CS) reached a $660,594 settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control this week for allegedly violating sanctions against Iran. OFAC said the company’s United Arab Emirates subsidiary, Construction Specialties Middle East (CSME), illegally reexported more than $1 million worth of construction materials to Iran and falsified trade documents to hide their destination.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control delayed the retirement of its “PIP, DEL, and SDALL.ZIP sanctions list file formats” until on or about Sept. 18, the agency said in a notice this week. OFAC was scheduled to retire the formats this month (see 2307070012). The notice includes a complete list of files that the agency will retire. The Sanctions List Search tool “will not be affected by these changes."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week updated two entries on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The changes update identifying information for Singapore-based Unicious Energy, which was sanctioned in February for helping sanctioned company Triliance Petrochemical sell Iranian petroleum products, and Behnam Shahriyari, an official with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.