The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the following sanctions action last week.
Cyber-related Sanctions
- OFAC removes Tornado Cash from SDN List: OFAC on March 21 removed virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash from its Specially Designated Nationals List. Read more.
Iran-related Sanctions
- OFAC sanctions teapot oil refinery network: OFAC on March 20 designated a teapot oil refinery and its chief executive officer for purchasing and refining hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil, including from vessels linked to the Foreign Terrorist Organization, Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis, and the Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). Teapot refiners are private Chinese refineries. OFAC also sanctioned 19 entities and vessels responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil, comprising part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers supplying teapot refineries like Luqing Petrochemical. Read more. Read the State Department’s news release.
Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Regulations
- OFAC sanctions leader of Lopez Human Smuggling Organization: OFAC on March 18 sanctioned Jumilca Sandivel Hernandez Perez (Hernandez Perez), a key leader of the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization (HSO), a Guatemala-based Transnational Criminal Organization responsible for the smuggling of thousands of Guatemalans, through Mexico, and into the United States. Additionally, Hernandez Perez has coordinated her illegal activity with members of the violent U.S.-sanctioned drug trafficking organization, La Linea, which among other heinous acts is responsible for the November 2019 murders of nine American citizens, including six children, in the Mexican state of Sonora. Read more.
- Related to this action, OFAC published a new counter terrorism-related OFAC Alert, “International Cartels Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” The alert raises awareness of recent terrorist designations of international cartels and criminal liability risks for U.S. and foreign financial institutions and others with exposure to these cartels. Read the alert.
