On August 23, 2023, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued the first Determination Pursuant to Section 1(a)(i) of Executive Order (“EO”) 14014 (the “Determination”), which extends the application of section 1(a)(i) of EO 14014 to the jet fuel sector of the Burmese economy. On the same day, OFAC also published two related Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”): FAQ 1132 and FAQ 1133. Our blog post on the issuance of EO 14014…
On May 1, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued General License No. 42 (“GL 42”) under the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations (“VSR”), three new Venezuela-related Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”), and also amended one Venezuela-related FAQ. These developments occurred in the context of efforts by creditors to enforce judgments against Venezuela and appear to have been in response to a request from the Special Master for the US District…
On May 12, 2022, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued Syria General License No. 22 (“GL 22”), authorizing certain activities in particular sectors of the Syrian economy that are otherwise prohibited under the Syrian Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 542, “SSR”) in specified regions of Syria not controlled by the Assad regime. According to the US Statement Department’s press release, GL 22 was issued in support of the Biden Administration’s…
On November 5, 2019, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued a new Venezuela-related general license (General License No. 35) (“GL 35”) to authorize certain administrative transactions with the Government of Venezuela (“GOV”) prohibited by Executive Order (“EO”) 13884 (“Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela”); issued General License No. 34A (“GL 34A”), which supersedes and replaces General License No. 34, and authorizes transactions involving certain GOV-related individuals prohibited by EO 13884; and identified five current GOV officials on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) pursuant to EO 13884.
Then, on November 21, 2019, OFAC announced the amendment of the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations (“VSR,” 31 C.F.R. Part 591) to incorporate additional EOs; make certain clarifying changes; add a GL authorizing US Government activities; and add an interpretive provision regarding activities related to judicial processes. The VSR regulatory amendments took effect on November 22, 2019 concurrent with their publication in the Federal Register, available here.
These Venezuela sanctions developments are described in more detail below. Our previous blog posts about US sanctions targeting Venezuela are available here.