The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted the following individuals and entities from the Specially Designated Nationals list on Sept. 3 (here):
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals list in recent days, while dropping dozens of entries (here).
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added one individual and dropped another from the Specially Designated Nationals list on Aug. 25 (here). The OFAC changes following State Department action on the two individuals (see 1508250030).
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Central African Republic individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals list on Aug. 21 (here). OFAC also made one Central African Republic deletion.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals list on Aug. 19 (here).
A senior official at the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control recently joined the ranks of attorneys at Gibson Dunn in Washington, the law firm said. Former Senior Advisor to the Director of OFAC, Adam Smith, will counsel and defend Gibson Dunn clients on sanctions law, international trade and other areas, the firm said in a release (here). Smith worked for the Obama administration for the past five years, where he also served as an advisor on the National Security Council, said the firm.
The Treasury Department settled cases in recent days with two companies over violations of the U.S. sanctions regime. Production Products will pay Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control $78,750 over illegal shipments to China of three duct fabrication machines (here). The Maryland-based company sent the goods to China National Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp., an entity on the Specially Designated National list. OFAC also published a notice of sanctions violations involving Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings (SOHL), a subsidiary of Houston-based Schlumberger Ltd. (here). SOHL and Schlumberger collaborated to direct and oversee the transfer of oilfield equipment to Iran and Sudan, two countries that are strictly sanctioned by the U.S. Those transfers, along with other violations that involved capital expenditures and technical services, took place from 2004-2010. SOHL agreed to pay a more than $150,000,000 criminal fine to the Justice Department and a forfeiture of more than $77,000,000, said OFAC.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Syria-related individuals, entities and vessels to the Specially Designated Nationals list on Aug. 3 (here) and Aug. 5 (here).
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Ukraine-related individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals list on July 30 (here). The agency also deleted Ukraine-related entries and added a long list of companies to its sectoral list.
Great Plains Stainless (GPS) Company agreed to settle with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls for alleged violations of the Executive Order "Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters" and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations (WMDPSR) on July 24 (here). GPS agreed to pay the OFAC $214,000 for alleged violations spanning from April 9, 2009 to July 4, 2009. The settlement includes descriptions of two violations. The first count described GPS sales of goods shipped from its Chinese vendor to a customer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, via "a vessel that was identified as blocked property," said OFAC. The second count cites GPS engaging in "transactions that appear to have been intended to evade or avoid the prohibitions in the WMDPSR when the company requested the creation of new trade documents, with references to the blocked vessel removed, and then transferred the altered documents to its customer to facilitate the release of goods held at port in Dubai," OFAC said.