The recent departure of many career employees at the Bureau of Industry and Security and other government agencies hasn’t necessarily translated into less export control and sanctions enforcement activity, lawyers said last week.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Philippines-based Funnull Technology Inc. and its administrator, Liu Lizhi, for providing computer infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites involved in virtual currency investment scams. OFAC said Americans lose billions of dollars annually in these scams, which are known as "pig butchering."
New FAQs issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 28 provide more guidance on U.S. sanctions relief for Syria (see 2505230073), including what types of transactions are authorized, what Syria-related sanctions the U.S. is still enforcing and more. The FAQs stress that U.S. banks can process transactions by, to and through the Central Bank of Syria and that the sanctions relief doesn't remove any existing authorizations for humanitarian aid.
Although adopting a 50% rule for the Entity List could allow U.S. export controls to capture more bad actors, it could also cause unintended business consequences and may make it more challenging for the Bureau of Industry and Security to add companies to the list, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s former export enforcement chief.
The Trump administration confirmed this week it will not renew a general license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control that has allowed Chevron to wind down certain oil activities in Venezuela.
The Consolidated Screening List -- the comprehensive list of entities and people subject to U.S. export controls and other trade restrictions -- has recently been experiencing issues and isn't up to date, the Commerce Department said in a notice on its website last week. While the list's search engine still works, "it has not been updating consistently from the source files since April 21, 2025."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control released another video May 23 in its ongoing effort to provide guidance on U.S. sanctions programs and rules. The latest episode provides an overview of how to contact the OFAC Compliance Hotline to submit questions about U.S. sanctions compliance and OFAC resources. The agency's other videos offer a tutorial on using its sanctions list search tool (see 2401190016), an introduction to U.S. sanctions programs (see 2307280070), and an introduction to blocking and non-blocking sanctions (see 2308280047).
The Treasury Department issued a new general license last week that it said gives “immediate” sanctions relief to Syria, “effectively lifting sanctions” on the country in the aftermath of last year’s fall of the Bashar Assad regime.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma and Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda, two senior members of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste, formerly known as Los Zetas, for their roles in trafficking firearms and violence. OFAC said de Anda oversees payments to “facilitators” and straw purchasers in the U.S., who make “false representations” to buy firearms from American businesses. Gonzalez led an armed enforcement wing of the cartel that has carried out attacks on the Mexican police and military, OFAC said. Mexican authorities arrested Gonzalez in February.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week deleted multiple Venezuela-related entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List, including Alejandro Antonio Fleming Cabrera and Leonardo Gonzalez. Fleming Cabrera was sanctioned in 2017 for being a senior Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, and Gonzalez was sanctioned in 2019 for his ties to corruption in Venezuela. The agency didn't release more information about the delistings.