Russia announced new sanctions against U.S. citizens, including two Treasury Department officials and two former Bureau of Industry and Security officials, according to an unofficial translation of a May 21 notice. Russia designated Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who has overseen some of the agency’s sanctions work, and Andrea Gacki, the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is alerting users of its website and sanctions list data files of upcoming technical changes. The agency is beginning its annual renewal of the public certificate for its website, including its sanctions list downloads, and said its existing certificate will be replaced May 26 beginning at 9 p.m. The process will take about three to six hours for the replacement to be widely distributed, OFAC said in a May 23 notice. Users may need to update their configuration to trust the renewed certificate in order to prevent a loss of functionality.
The departments of state, the treasury, commerce and labor issued an advisory concerning U.S. Businesses in Sudan, to highlight the growing risks to American interests conducting business in the country, especially with Sudanese state-owned enterprises. Recent actions undertaken by the Sudanese government and security forces could adversely impact U.S. businesses and their operations in the country and the region, according to the advisory.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated Lebanese businessman and Hezbollah financier Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah along with five associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq, according to a May 19 notice. The action highlighted Hezbollah’s practice of using seemingly legitimate businesses to secretly fund the terrorist group and its activities, the OFAC news release said.
A federal magistrate judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in an order unsealed May 13 that the U.S. had probable cause to believe that an unnamed American citizen violated U.S. sanctions by using cryptocurrency to help various parties evade restrictions. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ruled that virtual currency is traceable and that sanctions apply to virtual currency (In Re: Criminal Complaint, D.D.C. #22-00067).
The U.S. will loosen some Trump-era restrictions on Cuba-related remittances, the State Department announced this week. The administration plans to remove the current limit on family remittances of $1,000 per quarter per “sender-receiver pair,” and it also will authorize donative, or non-family, remittances to “support independent Cuban entrepreneurs.” The agency said it will work with electronic payment processors to “encourage increased Cuban market accessibility.”
The departments of State and the Treasury, along with the FBI, issued a May 16 advisory regarding possible attempts by North Korean IT workers to obtain employment while posing as non-North Korean nationals, according to a notice from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Companies need to stay on top of their compliance because significant escalation of Russia-related sanctions is possible, KPMG experts said. The "dramatic increase in the use of sanctions and other controls" over the past two months will likely continue to expand in complexity, said Jason Rhoades, KPMG senior manager-trade and customs services, during a May 11 webinar. Because Russian behavior toward Ukraine has not changed, "we expect [the use of sanctions] to continue to grow," Rhoades said. "There is significant room still out there for [sanctions] escalation."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 11 updated three frequently asked questions related to Russia sanctions. The FAQs clarify what type of services to Russia are blocked under U.S. restrictions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued Syria General License 22, which authorizes the processing or transfer of funds on behalf of third-country entities to or from Syria in support of the transactions necessary for agriculture, information and telecommunications, power grid infrastructure, construction, finance, clean energy, transportation and warehousing, water and waste management, health services, education, manufacturing and trade in northeast and northwest Syria.