Vladimir Voronchenko, a Russian citizen and legal permanent resident of the U.S., was charged with participating in a scheme to net over $4 million to maintain four properties in the U.S. owned by sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, DOJ announced. Voronchenko also tried to sell two of the properties.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Russian price cap guidance last week to include information on the recently imposed cap on Russian petroleum products. The measure -- which took effect 12:01 a.m. EST on Feb. 5 -- sets a $45 per barrel cap for petroleum products that trade at a discount to crude, such as naphtha and waste oils, and a $100 per barrel cap on products that trade at a premium to crude, such as motor fuel.
DOJ’s new corporate enforcement policies substantially increase compliance incentives and may lead to more voluntary self-disclosures, law firms said. But they also said much of the new policy will depend on how DOJ implements the changes, and it remains unclear how much of a downstream impact the revisions will have on export control and sanctions cases handled by other agencies.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week revised the entry for one person on its Specially Designated Nationals List who was sanctioned for counter-terrorism reasons. The change updates identifying information for Ali Reza Tangsiri, an Iranian national linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and subject to secondary sanctions (see 1906240046).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated eight senior executives of Paravar Pars -- an Iranian company that manufactures Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force -- and two Iranian naval vessels. The sanctions target Paravar Pars' board members, including CEO Hossein Shamsabadi, and the vessels Iris Makran and Iris Dena, an oil tanker serving as a UAV maintenance ship and an escorting frigate, respectively.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 10 individuals and 12 entities the agency said are related to a global sanctions evasion network that supports Russia’s military-industrial complex. The designations are part of a "strategy to methodically and intensively target sanctions evasion efforts around the globe, close down key backfilling channels, expose facilitators and enablers, and limit Russia’s access to revenue," OFAC said in a Feb. 1 news release.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has published a group of previously issued general licenses under its Venezuela sanctions. One notice covers general licenses 6, 10 and 11; another notice covers general license 5F; and a third covers general licenses 14 and 15. The full text of each license appears in the respective notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated six individuals and three entities connected to Burma’s military regime in conjunction with actions taken by both the U.K. and Canada, according to a Jan. 31 news release. The designations cover individuals and entities that financially support Burma's military regime, which OFAC says has "continued to use violence and oppression to deny the people of Burma the ability to choose their own leaders."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated the leader of a Mexico-based network and two associates for procuring precursor chemicals to manufacture and traffic fentanyl and other synthetic drugs to the U.S., according to a Jan. 30 news release.
The Treasury Department is seeking public comments on an information collection on certain reporting requirements under the financial sanctions regulations for Hezbollah. U.S. financial institutions that maintained a correspondent account or payable-through account for certain foreign financial institutions listed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control must file a report with OFAC that includes “full details on the closing of each such account, and on all transactions processed or executed through the account.” This report must be filed with OFAC within 30 days of the account's closure. Public comments are due March 1.