The U.S. fined an Italian animation company $538,000 after it violated U.S. sanctions by outsourcing work to an animation studio owned by the North Korean government, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an enforcement release. The company, Mondo TV, illegally used U.S. banks to send money to the studio through wire transfers, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned about 50 entities and people, including a “sprawling” shadow banking network, used by Iran’s military to access the international financial system. Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have used the network to process billions of dollars since 2020, OFAC said, and use various exchange houses and foreign “cover companies” to “disguise the revenue they generate abroad,” which they then use to buy and develop advanced weapons systems.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 12 executives working for Kaspersky, the Russian cybersecurity software firm, for working in Russia’s technology sector. The designations target senior officials of AO Kaspersky Lab one day after the Commerce Department announced that it would be adding the lab, as well as Russia-based OOO Kaspersky Group and U.K.-based Kaspersky Labs Limited, to the Entity List (see 2406200032).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control urged a federal court late last month to dismiss the sole remaining claim in a lawsuit challenging the agency’s sanctioning of two former Afghan government officials for corruption.
The U.S. this week designated people and companies tied to the sanctioned president of the Serb Republic and his family, including businesses they use to generate wealth or evade sanctions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said. OFAC also issued two new general licenses to authorize certain transactions with the people and companies and updated one existing license.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several people and entities, along with one vessel, for helping to procure weapons for the Iran-backed Houthis or for shipping commodities to fund the Yemen-based group. The designations target procurement officers and companies in China along with others in Oman, Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned one of Guyana’s wealthiest families, their company, a Guyanese government official and two other other companies for ties to corruption. The sanctions target people and companies that have tried to “exploit Guyana’s underdeveloped gold sector for personal gain,” said Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned shipping companies, shipowners, vessels and others based in China, the United Arab Emirates, India and elsewhere for helping to transport oil and commodities for Sa’id al-Jamal (see 2312280012, 2401120015 and 2403260016), a financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis. OFAC said the network helps to forge shipping documents and hide their cargo origin to evade U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. last week removed sanctions from a Swiss business consultant, his two sons and his companies because they ended their business in Russia, a Treasury Department spokesperson said.