OFAC Sanctions Venezuelan Bank, Director

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Central Bank of Venezuela and its director, Iliana Josefa Ruzza Teran, for operating in the country’s financial sector and being used as a “tool of the illegitimate [Nicolas] Maduro regime,” OFAC said in a April 17 press release. Along with the sanctions, OFAC amended five Venezuela-related general licenses and issued two new general licenses that authorize certain dealings, bonds and transactions with Venezuela and several Venezuelan banks, including the Central Bank of Venezuela, according to an enforcement notice.

Treasury called the bank and its director a “key entity and individual” in Venezuela “which the Maduro regime continues to exploit in order to stay in power.” The bank, known as Banco Central de Venezuela, is based in Caracas and operated my multiple people already sanctioned by the U.S., OFAC said, including directors Simon Alejandro Zerpa Delgado and William Antonio Contreras. Ruzza, the director who OFAC sanctioned with its April 17 notice, was appointed to his position in July 2018, serves on the board of directors for the Venezuelan Department of Foreign Commerce and in May 2018 was named the vice president of finance for Petroleos de Venezuela, which is under current U.S. sanctions, according to the release.

The general licenses issued by OFAC authorize certain transactions involving “non-commercial, personal remittances and the provision of humanitarian assistance to the people of Venezuela,” Treasury said. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement: “While this designation will inhibit most Central Bank activities undertaken by the illegitimate Maduro regime, the United States has taken steps to ensure that regular debit and credit card transactions can proceed and personal remittances and humanitarian assistance continue unabated and are able to reach those suffering under the Maduro regime’s repression.”