Ljiljana Karadzic asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to set aside its order dismissing her suit challenging her designation on the Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals List (see 2408070040). Karadzic claimed the D.C. court failed to address her claim that OFAC made an "unreasonable" decision in "declining to remove her from the list" (Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic v. Lisa Palluconi, D.D.C. # 23-01226).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned an Iranian military official and six employees of an Iranian cybersecurity company for interfering in the 2024 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Russian national Sergey Ivanov and virtual currency exchange Cryptex, which is operated by Ivanov. The move was announced concurrently with enforcement action from various U.S. and international enforcement agencies, including an indictment unsealed against Ivanov and fellow Russian national Timur Shakhmametov.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned more than a dozen companies, ships and Luay al-Mallah, brother of sanctioned “shipping Syrian magnate” Abdul Jalil Mallah, for helping to move Iranian crude oil and liquid petroleum gas to Syria and East Asia. After his brother was sanctioned, Luay al-Mallah helped run his family’s shipping business, OFAC said, which assists the shipping network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iran-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis (see 2408150008).
Lengthy license response times at the Office of Foreign Assets Controls are keeping many Iranian Americans from selling assets in Iran, especially if those assets are properties that have been gifts, Yazdanyar Law Offices said in a client alert this month.
Notable language included in the U.K.’s regulations for its new Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (see 2409130015) allows the agency to share information about possible violations with “any other regulatory body,” including those outside the U.K., Akin said in a client alert. The law firm said it expects to see OTSI “working closely with a range of sanctions coordinators globally to ensure trade sanctions operate effectively in cross-border matters.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five Colombian nationals and two Mexican businesses for ties to illegal drug trade.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued more guidance about its new Russia-related information technology and software services restrictions that took effect Sept. 12 (see 2409120033). One FAQ addresses questions about certain authorized services, and the other two address questions about the scope of the exclusions under the restrictions.
Companies should continue to expect an “aggressive” U.S. sanctions enforcement landscape heading into next year, and should consider increasing the amount of due diligence they undertake if they haven’t already, panelists said during an event last week about sanctions compliance.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five entities and one person involved with Russian and North Korean efforts to set up illegal payments mechanisms and help the countries evade sanctions. The designations target MRB Bank, based in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia, along with Russia-based TSMRBank, OOO; Russian Financial Corporation Bank JS; Stroytreyd LLC and Timer Bank, AO. OFAC also sanctioned Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin, vice president of TSMRBank.