The Treasury Department should endorse a protocol that would allow financial institutions to prove that a digital-asset wallet holder isn’t subject to U.S. sanctions while keeping that holder’s identity private, consulting firms and digital-assets companies told the agency.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, president of Colombia, for actions that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said have allowed drug cartels and traffickers to "flourish." OFAC also sanctioned Gustavo Petro’s eldest son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos, who is considered to be his political heir; First Lady Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; and Armando Alberto Benedetti Villaneda, who has been appointed by Petro to multiple high-ranking positions within the Colombian government.
The Treasury Department on Oct. 22 announced new sanctions against Russia -- including against major energy companies Rosneft and Lukoil -- due to Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.”
Maura Rezendes, former head of the sanctions team at A&O Shearman, has joined Sidley as a partner in the global arbitration, trade and advocacy practice, the firm announced last week. Rezendes' practice centers on "regulatory compliance advice and counseling, transactional support, investigations and enforcement" of economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two individuals Oct. 17 for their affiliation with Viv Ansanm, a Haitian gang coalition that the agency said “contributes to the violence and instability within Haiti.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Oct. 17 removed four Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals from its Specially Designated Nationals List: Jelena Pajic Bastinac, Danijel Dragicevic, Dijana Milankovic and Goran Rakovic. The agency didn’t release more information. The four individuals were sanctioned during the Biden administration for undermining the 1995 peace deal that ended the Bosnian War (see 2501170071 and 2403130032).
Five senators, including leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Oct. 15 that they welcome the Trump administration’s decision to allow a sanctions license for Serbia’s majority-Russian-owned oil company, NIS, to lapse this month. Russia uses energy to commit economic coercion in Europe and sustain its war against Ukraine, said a joint statement from Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and others. They also said that Russia’s stake in the company undermines Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s goal of joining the EU.
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The U.S. and the U.K. this week sanctioned a range of people and entities that they said are involved in criminal networks that carry out online investment scams and launder stolen funds. The designations target networks in Southeast Asia, including the Cambodia-based Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization, which is led by Cambodian national Chen Zhi and operates a “transnational criminal empire” through online scams targeting Americans and others.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed from the Specially Designated Nationals List a Turkey-based entity that had originally been targeted for posing a Russia-related secondary sanctions risk. The agency deleted three aliases for the entity known as North Star Shipyard, Kuzey Star Shipyard Denizcilik Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, and Kuzey Star Shipyard Maritime Industry and Trade Inc. OFAC didn't provide more information.