Treasury Announces Kingpin Designations on Argentine Nationals, Companies
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on Argentina-based Goldpharma, which it called a drug trafficking and money laundering organization, and several of its members, Treasury said in a May 23 notice. In total, OFAC designated the company, eight Argentine nationals and 16 other entities under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act for operating as “significant foreign narcotics” traffickers and contributing to the “synthetic opioid crisis,” Treasury said.
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Goldpharma uses an online network to control virtual pharmacy websites, Treasury said, selling both legitimate and “clandestinely produced” narcotics such as oxycodone and hydrocodone without prescriptions. The “vast majority” of its customers live in the U.S., the notice said. The company’s members who are being sanctioned include five who have been indicted by a U.S. court for their role with Goldpharma: Conrado Adolfo Frenzel, Jorge Alejandro Paura, Luciano Brunetti, Lucas Daniel Paura and Santiago Videmato. The remaining three, Sergio David Ferrari, Gaston Tomaghelli and Roberto Javier Perez Santoro, are actively working within the company, the notice said.
Ferrari runs a network of entities in several countries known as the Smile Group -- also being sanctioned -- which funnels money from Goldpharma sales back to Argentina, Treasury said. OFAC sanctioned several entities belonging to the Smile Group: “Technologies S.A. (registered in Argentina), SmileWallet S.A.S. (registered in Colombia), Smile Property & Travel Ltd. (registered in the United Kingdom), Smile Technologies Canada Ltd. (registered in Canada) and SmileWallet B.V. (registered in the Netherlands),” the notice said.
OFAC’s announcement also sanctioned seven U.S. companies owned or controlled by members of Goldpharma: SmilePayments LLC (Delaware), Oyster Investments LLC (Delaware), Smilewallet, LLC (Texas), Smile Property & Travel Ltd. (Texas), Smile Technologies S.A. LLC (Texas), La Florida Investments Group LLC (Florida) and Water Hill Corp (Florida). In addition, OFAC also sanctioned four more Argentine companies: Bajer S.R.L., B-Work S.A.S., DTS Consulting S.A. and High Nutrition Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, the notice said.
"Treasury’s action alongside our Argentine counterparts to shut down the Goldpharma network is part of this administration’s broader strategy to combat the synthetic opioid crisis, and to prevent narcotics traffickers from selling these deadly drugs in the United States,” Sigal Mandelker, undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement. “This action leverages Treasury’s unique tools to disrupt the complex global financial and logistics networks that drug kingpins rely on, and complements the efforts of our law enforcement partners who work relentlessly to combat these threats.”