The State Department officially published the Cuba Restricted List in the Federal Register this week, days after the Trump administration reinstated the list as part of an effort to reverse last-minute moves by President Joe Biden that removed certain sanctions against the country (see 2502030055, 2501220008 and 2501170021). Entities on the list are generally blocked by the Cuban Assets Control Regulations from participating in financial transactions with U.S. parties, and the Bureau of Industry and Security will generally deny export applications "for use by entities or subentities" on the list.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control officially retired its RSS feed Jan. 31, the agency said in a notice this week (see 2411220009). The agency continues to provide updates about recent sanctions by email, and users can sign up for those updates. Technical support questions should be sent to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of people, companies and ships that it said are moving millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil to China on behalf of the Iranian military and a sanctioned front company, Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars (see 2311290034).
President Donald Trump on Feb. 4 signed a memorandum that would restore the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran he instituted during his first administration, including possibly through new sanctions.
Australia has announced sanctions on several groups and people under its counterterrorism financing sanctions authority, including an online group linked to attacks on critical infrastructure, entities tied to Russia and a senior Hezbollah official.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he officially brought back the Cuba Restricted List on Jan. 31, part of an effort by the Trump administration to reverse last-minute moves by President Joe Biden that removed certain sanctions against the country (see 2501220008 and 2501170021). The U.S. also added an entity to the list: Orbit, S.A., which the State Department said is a remittance-processing company with ties to the Cuban military. The Cuba Restricted List includes entities that are subject to certain financial restrictions because of their ties to the Cuban government.
The U.K. removed Nikolay Ivanovich Bortsov, a former member of the Russian assembly, from its Russian sanctions list on Jan. 30. Bortsov died in April 2023.
The Council of the EU on Jan. 30 renewed its list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions for engaging in terrorism, though it delisted one deceased person. The sanctions currently apply to 14 individuals and 22 groups and now run until Feb. 22, 2027.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week rescinded two alerts that warned banks about transactions that may have been funding “Israeli extremist settler violence” in violation of U.S. sanctions (see 2402010053). The alerts had asked banks and other financial institutions to submit suspicious activity reports to FinCEN if they believed a transaction may have been tied to West Bank violence. The move came days after the Office of Foreign Assets Control, under the direction of President Donald Trump, officially removed sanctions from all people and entities designated under a Biden-era sanctions authority that had targeted violent Israeli settlers and organizations in the region (see 2501240011).
The European Union on Jan. 27 sanctioned three Russian individuals for their "malicious cyber activities against Estonia" carried out in 2020. The individuals are all officers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Unit 29155. The officers gained unauthorized access to classified and sensitive information stored within Estonian government ministries, "leading to the theft of thousands of confidential documents," the Council of the EU said. Unit 29155 also conducts cyberattacks against other European nations, including Ukraine, the council said.