OFAC lists impact of sanctions

In a presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., OFAC Under Secretary of the Treasury Mandelker discussed the results of sanctions in the last two years:

• Cut off billions of dollars in revenue that would have otherwise flowed to the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, Iran;
• Disrupted major networks that had provided Bashar al-Assad with oil and other resources he has used to brutalize the Syrian people, destabilize the region, and fund terror;
• Choked off funds to Hizballah, causing the terrorist organization to undertake an unprecedented plea for funding;
• Expanded sectoral and other sanctions in response to Russia’s continued aggression, leading to major western firms abandoning joint exploration ventures with Russian companies and a drop in foreign direct investment;
• Exposed and disrupted the malign activity of Russian oligarchs, such as Oleg Deripaska, who are closely linked to the Kremlin, forcing them to divest ownership in large corporations and rendering them pariahs to the international business community;
• Disrupted North Korean shipping, financial, and export networks and worked in concert with our allies and the UN to create a diplomatic opening for discussion;
• Led the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in adopting comprehensive measures for how countries must regulate and supervise digital assets, including digital currencies, to address and mitigate the associated moneylaundering and terrorist risks;
• Targeted and disrupted networks of human rights abusers and corrupt officials all over the world, including the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela and kleptocrats in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and
• Exposed and disrupted numerous illicit finance schemes around the world, from ISIS to Al-Qaeda, from drug kingpins to transnational criminal organizations.