The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department is seeking comment on a revision to the OFAC's Electronic License Application Form TD-F 90-22.54. relating to release of blocked funds under transaction prohibited under the Trading with the Enemy Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 1-44 and other laws. Comments are due August 27.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau adopted as final, with some changes, temporary tobacco regulations made pursuant to the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. These regulations include permit and related requirements for manufacturers and importers of processed tobacco, requirements for manufacturers of tobacco products who also manufacture processed tobacco, and regulations related to the expansion of the definition of roll-your-own tobacco, said TTB. As the temporary rule’s requirements have already been in place for three years, this rule is effective immediately on June 21, it said.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control launched a new, internal Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Blocked Persons List production system, it said. It's designed to emulate existing SDN data formats, so the transition should be relatively transparent to the public, OFAC said, but some long-standing minor problems with the data formats were corrected. It said users of the emulated SDN data will see some changes to records that are administrative only.
The National Bank of Abu Dhabi agreed to remit $855,000 to settle potential civil liability for 45 transactions that appear to have violated the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 538, said Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Controls. The apparent violations occurred from about Nov. 11, 2004, to about Dec. 27, 2005, OFAC said. NBAD provided information to OFAC that certain of its clerical staff removed or omitted Sudan-related references in payment instructions processed on behalf of its Sudan branch for payments routed through financial institutions located in the U.S. in apparent violation of the prohibition against the "exportation or re-exportation, directly or indirectly, to Sudan," OFAC said. The combined value of the 45 electronic funds transfers was $4,389,235.42, it said. OFAC decided the apparent violations constituted a non-egregious case because NBAD took prompt and appropriate remedial action, provided substantial cooperation, and has not received a penalty notice or finding of violation in the five years preceding the transactions.
The Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control has a $619 million settlement with ING Bank to settle potential liability for apparent violations of U.S. sanctions, it said. That makes it the largest OFAC settlement of any kind to date, and resolves OFAC's investigation into ING Bank's intentional manipulation and deletion of information about U.S.-sanctioned parties in more than 20,000 financial and trade transactions routed through third-party banks located in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007, OFAC said.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control released the name of 1 newly-designated entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13382 of June 28, 2005. The action was effective on May 30, 2012.