The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list and made changes to another entry on July 23:

The sanctions relief deal struck between Iran and P5+1 countries in January will be extended through Nov. 24, 2014, said the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The P5+1 countries include the U.S., Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany. The sanctions relief was originally set to expire on July 20. The relief liberalizes restrictions on Iranian exports of petrochemical products, Iran’s purchase and sale of gold and precious metals, the provision of goods and services to Iran’s automotive sector, and the licensing of safety-of-flight inspections and repairs for Iranian civil aviation, and establishes channels to permit importation of humanitarian goods (see 14012715).

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released additional file formats for the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) list. OFAC published the SSI list in recent days in PDF and TXT formats. The SSI list will now be available in the same formats as the Specially Designated Nationals and Foreign Sanctions Evaders lists. The additional formats are intended to improve the public’s ability to comply with the SSI list. OFAC did not publish additional names to the list.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) settled two potential civil liability cases in recent days, the agency said on July 24. OFAC settled a case with San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Campo Gardens for $27,000 over alleged violations of Narcotics Trafficking Sanctions Regulations (here). The firm allegedly purchased $344,016 worth of frozen passion fruit juice/pulp from Frutas Exoticas Colombiana, a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker. The transactions took place from 2009-10. OFAC said the firm did not have a proper compliance program in place during the infractions, but has since instituted an OFAC program. OFAC also settled for $16,562,700 a potential civil liability case with Bank of America over 116 transactions executed for Adrian Orozco Cardenas, Luis Carrillo Rodriguez, and Carlos Alberto Sanchez (here). The individuals are entries on the Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers list. The transactions, made from 2005-09, allegedly violated the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations. Bank of America is required to pay the fine within 15 days of receiving the settlement agreement and demonstrate it has an effective compliance program in place.

Tofasco of America settled a civil liability case with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by remitting $21,375 related to an alleged violation of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations, OFAC said on July 17. The company allegedly dealt in blocked property when it used a bank to process a blocked letter of credit transaction for payment in a 2009 shipment of recreational chairs to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. Tofasco did not appear to have an operational OFAC compliance program at the time of the alleged violation, said OFAC.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added 20 new Russian and Ukrainian entries to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list on July 16. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security followed up on the OFAC measure by adding 11 entities (here), also sanctioned by OFAC, to the Entity List. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during a July 16 press conference hours before OFAC announced the sanctions the U.S. is prepared to “take the kind of steps” necessary to address turmoil in Ukraine.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added an individual Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, made changes to another entry and deleted a third entry on July 15 (here) and 11 (here):

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list on July 9 (here) and 10 (here):

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is amending the Zimbabwe Sanctions Regulations in a final rule in order to implement Executive Orders 13391, issued in 2005, and 13469, issued in 2008. The final rule was effective on July 7.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is seeking comment on an information collection related to the shipment of rough diamonds. Comments are due by Sept. 8. U.S. law requires the ultimate consignee of a rough diamond shipment, identified on Customs Form 7501 Entry Summary, imported into the U.S. to report information to the foreign exporting authority within 15 days of the date the shipment arrived at a U.S. port. U.S. individuals and companies that import rough diamonds into the U.S. or export rough diamonds from the U.S. are also required to file an annual report to the U.S. government on trade activity throughout the year. OFAC is asking for an extension of the information collection without change. The requested comments should specifically address the following areas: