The annual frozen asset reporting will be due by Oct. 15, the United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions said when updating the requirements for reporting document Sept. 6. In particular, HM Treasury requests that all persons who hold or control "funds or economic resources belonging to, owned, held, or controlled by a designated person" provide it a report detailing the assets by the Oct.15 deadline, using a report template available on its website. Funds frozen in the U.K. "as well as those overseas where these funds or economic resources are subject to" U.K. financial sanctions legislation must be reported, along with the value of those assets as of Sept. 30, 2021.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control Sept. 8 released its annual terrorist assets report for 2020. The report includes an overview of OFAC terrorism sanctions, their impact, enforcement measures and a summary of blocked assets.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control said it decided to remove sanctions against three people and a vessel last week (see 2109020028) because “circumstances no longer warrant” their inclusion on the Specially Designated Nationals List, the agency said. The sanctions were removed from three Balkans-related entries and one vessel designated under Cuba sanctions. OFAC also changed identifying information for the entry for the vessel Sand Swan, including by revising its name to Ebano. It also updated identifying information for the vessel Tifon.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is seeking comments by Nov. 8 on an information collection related to its Rough Diamonds Control Regulations, the agency said in a notice. The collection involves the ultimate consignee listed on a customs form for trade in rough diamonds.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Iranian intelligence operatives who targeted a U.S. citizen and Iranian dissidents to silence their criticisms of the Iranian government, OFAC said Sept. 3. The agency designated senior intelligence official Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, who led a failed kidnapping attempt against a U.S. journalist and human rights activist. Others involved in the plot were intelligence operatives Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori, all of whom were also sanctioned. OFAC said they researched options to abduct the journalist in New York City and transport him to Venezuela on “military-style speedboats.” The group also targeted dissidents in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Sept. 2 removed four entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List. Three are Balkans related: Jovan Djogo, Momcilo Krajisnik and Dragan Nikolic. The fourth is Cuba-related, the vessel Hermann. OFAC also revised two Cuba-related entries for the vessels Sand Swan and Tifon. The agency didn’t immediately provide more information on the changes.
The U.S. should rethink sanctions against the Taliban and potentially Afghanistan, which likely will not work as intended and could lead to severe humanitarian consequences, said Husain Haqqani, an expert with the Hudson Institute and Pakistan’s former ambassador to the U.S. Haqqani said sanctions against the Taliban only “threaten to compound the already dire challenges of Afghan citizens,” adding that the country will soon run out of fuel and will need to import food. “With the serious potential for a nationwide humanitarian crisis,” Haqqani wrote in an Aug. 27 opinion piece in The Washington Post, “it would make sense to rethink the blunt instrument of sanctions.”
Companies and other entities should remember to file annual reports on blocked property to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (see 2107070005) by Sept. 30, Thompson Hine said in a September alert. The reports should cover property that became blocked July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. The alert includes details on the various blocked property reporting requirements and submitting the report to OFAC.
The Office of Foreign Assets Controls is seeking comments on the effectiveness of its licensing procedures for exporting agricultural goods, medicine and medical devices to Sudan and Iran from Oct. 1, 2016, through Sept. 30, 2018, OFAC said Aug. 31. The information gathered by OFAC will be used as part of its biennial report to Congress on its licenses procedures for such exports, and the agency asked commenters to be “as specific as possible.” Comments are due Oct. 1.
China could be an important economic and diplomatic lifeline for the Taliban as the group takes over the Afghan government and faces a range of sanctions (see 2108260055), the German Marshall Fund said Aug. 27. Beijing has power to sway decisions by the United Nations Security Council and is “more comfortable threatening its veto” on UNSC sanctions and embargo issues, which could give it leverage over the Taliban, the GMF said in a post written by China experts Bonnie Glaser and Andrew Small. “In a context where the Taliban know they will not receive real economic backing from the West -- at least not without conditions they will find unacceptable -- China is one of the few places they can turn.”