OFAC Sanctions Nicaraguan Bank, Son of President Ortega

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Nicaraguan bank and the son of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo, OFAC said in an April 17 press release. Banco Corporativo SA (BanCorp) and Laureano Ortega Murillo are being sanctioned for working to support corruption within the Nicaraguan government, OFAC said.

Treasury said Nicaragua has “cracked down on political opposition” since April 2018, leading to the imprisonment of political and social activists, causing deaths, injuries and prompting a mass exodus of more than 40,000 Nicaraguans seeking refuge in Costa Rica. “Treasury is sanctioning Laureano Ortega Murillo and BanCorp for their roles in corruption and money laundering for the personal gain of the Ortega regime,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement. “These actions send a message to all who continue to prop up the Ortega regime that there is a steep price to pay for abusing the Nicaraguan economy and its people.”

OFAC said it sanctioned BanCorp for “having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for” corruption within the Nicaraguan government and for sanctioned individuals, including Rosario Murillo. BanCorp is also used as a money-launderer for Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front party, OFAC said, and still does business with multiple individuals who are under current U.S. sanctions. BanCorp is owned by the Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company Petróleos de Venezuela, which is also sanctioned by the U.S.

Laureano is a government official and the “Investment Promotion Advisor” of Nicaragua, “overseeing investment proposals and projects,” OFAC said. Laureano “engaged in corrupt business deals in which foreign investors paid for preferential access to the Nicaraguan economy,” according to the release.