The Office of Foreign Assets Control is now accepting licensing questions through a new online platform and is planning to retire its current callback-only telephone system on Aug. 29, the agency said this week. Users that submit questions through the online platform will receive answers about specific OFAC licenses and interpretive guidance via email or by phone. Before submitting questions, OFAC said, users are encouraged to review existing sanctions FAQs, watch OFAC’s video guidance on applying for a license, review the agency’s best practices for license applications, and check their license application status.
The U.K. on July 21 sanctioned United Arab Emirates-based companies Intershipping Services and Litasco Middle East DMCC for doing business involving the Russian energy sector. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation also issued a new general license that authorizes certain transactions with Intershipping Services involving ships owned by the government of Gabon.
The U.K. issued a new Russian sanctions general license allowing non-designated parties who have made investments through sanctioned brokers to "transfer their funds to a non-designated broker." The license applies when the only sanctioned party involved is the broker. Under the license, an "Asset Holding Institution" can take steps to transfer any funds held by a central securities depository that the asset-holding institution "reasonably considers" are "investment assets of that" non-sanctioned account holder and relate to investment made by the non-sanctioned account holder with the sanctioned broker before it became sanctioned.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a Connecticut-based online investment broker $11,832,136 to settle alleged violations of multiple U.S. sanctions programs, saying the company illegally provided services to sanctioned people and restricted countries, and it processed trades in securities of blocked Chinese military companies.
The Russian grantor of a blocked U.S.-based trust company is suing the Office of Foreign Assets Control, saying OFAC falsely accused the trust of being used to help a Russian oligarch evade sanctions. Kuncha Kerimova, the grantor, said the trust was designed to share her wealth with her grandchildren and other descendants, not to aid designated Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov.
The U.S. this week sanctioned U.N. official Francesca Paola Albanese for working with the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. or Israeli nationals with ties to alleged human rights abuses being carried out by Israel against Palestinians. The State Department said Albanese is aiding with that investigatory work "without the consent of" the U.S. and Israel. Neither country is a party to the Rome Statute -- the treaty that established the ICC -- "making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries," the State Department said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week renewed a general license that authorizes payments of certain taxes, fees, import duties, licenses, certifications and other similar transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation that would normally be blocked under Directive 4 of Executive Order 14024. General License 13N, which replaces 13M, authorizes those transactions through 12:01 a.m. ET Oct. 9, as long as they're “ordinarily incident and necessary to the day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation of such U.S. persons or entities.” The license was scheduled to expire July 9.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week revised and extended a Venezuela-related license that authorizes certain transactions related to liquefied petroleum gas. General License 40D, which replaces 40C, authorizes certain transactions that are "ordinarily incident and necessary to the delivery and offloading" of liquefied petroleum gas in Venezuela involving the government, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela or any entity owned 50% or more by PdVSA. Those transactions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. ET Sept. 5 as long as the liquefied petroleum gas was loaded on a vessel on or before July 7.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 30 officially removed sanctions from 518 people and entities with ties to Syria after President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing the easing of both sanctions and certain export restrictions against the country (see 2506300055).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a final rule that adds to its regulations implementing President Donald Trump's February executive order authorizing sanctions against the International Criminal Court (see 2502070022). The rule, effective July 1, incorporates several previously issued general licenses into the regulations. The agency said it plans to issue a "more comprehensive set of regulations" in the future, "which may include additional interpretive guidance and definitions, GLs, and other regulatory provisions."