The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 10 people and entities based in Venezuela and Iran that it said are involved in trading and producing unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed several people from its sanctions list this week, including Alexandra Buriko, former chief financial officer of Russian state-owned Sberbank, who resigned from the bank after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She sued the Treasury Department last year to be removed from the Specially Designated Nationals List, and that lawsuit remains pending.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Dec. 19 again extended a general license that continues to delay an exemption that would authorize certain transactions related to Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., Venezuela’s state-owned energy company. General License 5T, which replaced GL 5S, now authorizes certain transactions with PdVSA involving an 8.5% bond on or after Feb. 3, 2026. The previous license was set to allow those transactions to occur on or after Dec. 20.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned five adult family members of Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, a nephew of the wife of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Exodus Movement, the U.S. cryptocurrency trading software company that agreed to pay more than $3 million to the Office of Foreign Assets Control this week to resolve allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions on Iran (see 2512160053), said it "acknowledges and regrets its prior compliance shortcomings during an early period in the firm’s lifetime." A spokesperson said in an email that the firm has "since taken stringent countermeasures and invested millions of dollars to ensure these lapses never happen again. Exodus has fully collaborated with OFAC throughout the investigation and are glad to put this matter firmly behind us."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated two Russia-related general licenses involving certain transactions involving Lukoil International GmbH, the international business of Russian energy firm Lukoil. One FAQ covers General License 131A (see 2512100017), which authorizes certain activities related to the negotiation of contracts for the sale of Lukoil International, and the other FAQ covers GL 131A along with GL 128B (see 2512040018), which authorizes certain transactions involving Lukoil retail service stations located outside Russia.
The U.S. this week sanctioned two International Criminal Court judges, Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia, after accusing them of aiding the court's "politicized actions" against Israel. The State Department said the judges are helping the ICC "investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent." They also voted in favor of the ICC’s ruling against Israel’s appeal on Dec. 15. The ICC is investigating the Israeli government for committing alleged war crimes against civilians in Gaza.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 29 ships and their management companies, which it said are operating as part of Iran's shadow fleet and helping the country transport petroleum and petroleum products through "deceptive shipping practices." They have helped Iran move hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petroleum, OFAC said.
Claire O'Neill McCleskey and Claire Grunewald, two former sanctions officials with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, have launched sanctions consulting firm Clarity Compliance Consulting, they announced on LinkedIn. O'Neill McCleskey previously served as head of OFAC's compliance division before leaving in October, and Grunewald was an OFAC sanctions compliance officer before leaving in September.