US Lifts Sanctions on Former Russian Bank CFO, People Linked to Spyware
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed several people from its sanctions list this week, including Alexandra Buriko, former chief financial officer of Russian state-owned Sberbank, who resigned from the bank after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She sued the Treasury Department last year to be removed from the Specially Designated Nationals List, and that lawsuit remains pending.
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OFAC also removed sanctions on several people who had been designated for their ties to Intellexa Consortium, a web of holding companies and commercial surveillance vendors that the U.S. said helped develop spyware technology used to target government officials, journalists and others.
They include Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, who OFAC sanctioned in 2024 for being a corporate off-shoring specialist providing managerial services to the Intellexa Consortium.
OFAC also delisted Andrea Nicola Costantino Hermes Gambazzi, who was designated for owning Thalestris Ltd. and Intellexa Ltd., members of the Intellexa Consortium, as well as Merom Harpaz, who was sanctioned for being a top executive of the Intellexa Consortium. Both Gambazzi and Harpaz were originally sanctioned in 2024.
OFAC didn't provide more information about the delistings.