The Office of Foreign Assets Control added one individual to its Specially Designated Nationals list under Libya designations, OFAC said (here). Separately, the agency published General License 4A (here), “Authorizing Certain Transactions Involving Individuals or Entities Located in the Panamanian Mall and Associated Complex, Soho Panama, S.A. (a.k.a. Soho Mall Panama),” General License 5 (here), “Authorizing Certain Transactions and Activities Related to the Panamanian Seizure of Balboa Bank & Trust,” and General License 6 (here), “Authorizing Certain Transactions and Activities Related to the Intervention by the Superintendency of Securities Markets of Panama in Balboa Securities, Corp.” OFAC has also updated its list of Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to Panama (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has added one individual and made several changes to entities and individuals previously sanctioned under the Kingpin Act from the Specially Designated Nationals list, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has added eight individuals and 69 entities to its Specially Designated Nationals list, under Kingpin Act designations, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 5 published three Kingpin Act general licenses, which would allow certain transactions to “wind down operations” for a hotel in Millennium Plaza, Panama (here), permit activities necessary to maintain Panamanian newspapers La Estrella and El Siglo (here), and authorize certain transactions with people or firms in the Panamanian mall Soho Panama (here). OFAC also posted three Frequently Asked Questions (here), and added several people and firms to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, the agency said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has added and removed several entities and individuals previously sanctioned under the Kingpin Act from the Specially Designated Nationals list, OFAC said (here).
The U.S. is extending until Oct. 31 the suspension of sanctions against the following Belarusian entities, which were previously scheduled to expire on April 30, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said (here):
The State Department on April 22 removed coffee (HTS 0901), and additional textiles and textile products (Section XI, Chapters 51 and 52) from a list of goods and services that are still ineligible for importation from Cuba (here), effectively clearing those goods for import, according to a department fact sheet (here). The list builds off of a January 2015 Office of Foreign Assets Control regulation that authorized imports of certain goods and services produced by independent Cuban entrepreneurs. Imports of the newly eligible items no longer need to be made directly from Cuba, State said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added one individual to its Specially Designated Nationals list under Libya designations, OFAC said (here).
Modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, requiring importers to issue more precise product declarations, import tariffs, and undercover investigations could complicate ISIS’ illicit trade of cultural antiquities, which some Iraqi officials estimate to be valued at $100 million overall, participants of an April 19 hearing of the House Financial Services Task Force to Investigate Terror Financing said. ISIS is believed to be smuggling stolen historical artifacts through routes spanning through Lebanon, Greece, and Bulgaria, and a large portion of the goods are thought to enter the U.S., as this country comprises 43 percent of the world’s art market, DePaul University law professor and State Department Cultural Property Advisory Committee member Patty Gerstenblith said during the hearing. That is nearly double the second-place United Kingdom. Terrorism sanctions on bootleggers and dealers would be a logical first step to stemming the flow of the snatched goods, as there is currently no general legal principle governing these illicit transports, Gerstenblith said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added eight individuals and one entity to its Specially Designated Nationals list, under Kingpin Act designations, OFAC said (here). Separately, OFAC made several updates to the SDN List alongside the release of regulations to implement the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 (here).