The Treasury Department said this week it’s considering designating Iraqi-based Al-Huda Bank as a foreign financial institution of primary money laundering concern, and sanctioned its owner Hamad al-Moussawi. A proposed rule released by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network could “sever the bank” from the U.S. financial system by blocking banks from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for or on behalf of the bank.

Senior Treasury Department official Brian Nelson met this week with nongovernmental organizations, international organizations and others to discuss the U.S. designation of the Yemen-based Houthis as a terrorist organization, which will take effect next month and subject the group to strict financial sanctions (see 2401170025).

The U.S. and the U.K. this week announced joint sanctions against a network of people who try to kidnap or assassinate Iranian dissidents and opposition activists around the world.

The U.K. issued an alert this week warning that Russian oligarchs may be using artwork storage facilities to hide their frozen assets, evade sanctions or launder money. People and companies involved in the art industry should be conducting “regular due diligence checks to understand any change in a client’s circumstances, or those of elites they may represent,” the country’s National Crime Agency, Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation and other agencies said.

The U.S. and the U.K. this week sanctioned four senior officials of the Yemen-based Houthis for their ties to the group’s recent attacks on commercial cargo ships (see 2401180050). The designations target Houthi Defense Minister Mohamed al-Atifi, maritime forces commander Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi, coastal defense forces chief Muhammad Ali al-Qadiri and procurement director Muhammad Ahmad al-Talibi. The Treasury Department noted that al-Talibi leads the group’s efforts to smuggle Iranian-provided weapons, missiles, drones and parts to Yemen.

The U.S., the U.K. and Australia on Jan. 23 sanctioned Russian national Aleksandr Ermakov, who played a “pivotal” role in a 2022 ransomware attack against an Australian healthcare insurance company. The Office of Foreign Assets Control said Ermakov is a “cybercriminal” who also poses a risk to U.S. healthcare firms.

The U.S. and the U.K. this week announced new sanctions against Hamas officials, people and entities helping to finance the terror group’s operations in Gaza, the Treasury Department said.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned an Iraqi airline, its CEO and others with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. The agency said they have helped to deliver shipments to the IRGC-QF or have helped launder money and support Kata’ib Hizballah, an IRGC-QF militia in Iraq.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week released another video in its ongoing effort to provide guidance on U.S. sanctions programs and rules. The latest episode, released Jan. 19, features a tutorial on how to use OFAC’s Sanctions List Search Tool. The agency has released other videos as part of an “Introduction to OFAC” series, which is meant to provide an overview of the agency’s sanctions requirements (see 2307280070 and 2308280047).

The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee urged the Biden administration on Jan. 18 to end Cuba’s “baseless, extremely harmful” designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.