US Treasury sanctions office
Appears in 22 stories · Last updated Nov 11, 2026
Publishing the designations at the centre of the story
For three years, the US Treasury's sanctions list grew mainly in one direction: Russia. Since April 2025 that has flipped. Treasury has added 1,574 names under Iran programmes and 51 under Russia programmes, according to a compilation of every OFAC list-change file published through November 6, 2026.
Updated Yesterday
Implemented new Cuba Sanctions Regulations effective September 30, 2026
The United States has imposed economic pressure on Cuba for 64 years. Now, for the first time, Washington is threatening to punish any country that sells oil to the island. President Trump's January 29 executive order creates a tariff mechanism targeting third countries that supply Cuban fuel—a significant escalation that goes beyond traditional bilateral sanctions to coerce allies and trading partners into joining an energy blockade. The strategy has proven devastatingly effective: Cuba's national power grid collapsed entirely on March 17, 2026, leaving approximately 10 million people without electricity and triggering street protests across the island, the most visible civil unrest in years. Partial restoration occurred on March 18 after 29 hours, but the blackout deepened shortages of food, medicine, and water, including the vandalization of a Cuban Communist Party provincial office in Morón. On March 21, Cuba blocked a US Embassy request to import diesel for generators, escalating diplomatic tensions amid ongoing rolling blackouts.
Updated 4 days ago
Issued the designations
The U.S. Treasury blocked eight money services businesses in Canada from the dollar financial system on November 6. Treasury says the firms exchanged Iranian rials for cryptocurrency and moved money for sanctioned Iranian entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Running designation rounds under Operation Economic Outcast through the fall; issued a November 4 industry alert on falsely flagged vessels alongside sanctions on the Sharma network
Treasury's December 2025 designation of 29 tankers fed into a war. The U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026, and a June 17 memorandum signed at the G7 briefly reopened Iran's oil trade under General License X. That relief died on July 17, when the license's wind-down expired after IRGC attacks on three tankers.
Updated 6 days ago
Issued the October 28 designations
The US Treasury sanctioned Rwanda's defence ministry and Zigama Credit and Savings Society, the bank that handles payments for the country's security services, on October 28. Treasury says the ministry sent thousands of troops into eastern Congo to fight alongside the M23 rebel group.
Updated Nov 3
Settled with the bank for $11.6 million
Bank of America recorded a $1.2 billion non-tax-deductible charge in the third quarter for the penalties Treasury announced October 13. In its quarterly filing on October 30, the bank said it has completed major steps under a December 2024 order to fix its anti-money-laundering program and has added staff and technology since late 2023.
Updated Nov 1
Enforcing body; running ongoing campaign against DPRK IT worker networks
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control blocked the US assets of ten people and one company on October 28. Treasury says they staffed and financed North Korea's information technology worker scheme, which places fake employees in US companies and sends most of their pay to Pyongyang's weapons programs.
Designated 181 total targets linked to Prince Group
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned 146 targets tied to the Cambodia-based Prince Group in October 2025, and the U.K. imposed matching sanctions. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) cut the Huione Group, a Cambodian payments conglomerate, off from U.S. banking. FinCEN found it laundered at least $4 billion between August 2021 and January 2025.
Updated Oct 28
Manages US sanctions; removed Jorge Rodriguez from SDN list
The US Treasury removed Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela's National Assembly, from its sanctions blacklist on October 14. He can now use the US financial system and do business with American citizens for the first time since 2018.
Updated Oct 18
As of October 2026: Wind-down periods ended; sanctions in full effect
Both wind-down windows have closed. General License CC expired September 19, ending the grace period for the three Turkish Golden Global firms blocked under Executive Order 13902, and General License DD expired September 23, ending the civil aviation wind-down.
Updated Oct 6
As of September 2026: Lifted remaining Belarus potash sanctions March 19, 2026
A U.S. envoy went to Minsk to talk about prisoners—and walked out with both a promise and a delivery. After John Coale's December 2025 visit with Alexander Lukashenko, Treasury's OFAC published General License 13 on December 15, authorizing transactions with Belaruskali, Belarusian Potash Company, and Agrorozkvit—no expiration date. Belarus responded by freeing 123 political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski and opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, the regime's most valuable hostages.
Updated Sep 25
As of September 2026: Launched Operation Economic Outcast on September 8, 2026, freezing Iran general licenses
Millions of Iranians who bank online now hit a red browser warning when they open their bank's website: 'Your connection is not secure.' Iranian banks are losing their SSL certificates, the digital IDs that prove a website is real, because the certificate authorities that issue them have stopped working with sanctioned institutions.
Updated Sep 14
As of September 2026: Designated Xinbi Guarantee as a transnational criminal organization
The U.S. Treasury designated Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language online marketplace, as a transnational criminal organization on September 9. The platform has processed more than $24 billion in digital assets since 2022, and the Justice Department seized its infrastructure the same day.
Updated Sep 10
As of September 2026: Enforcement arm of the sanctions campaign
The Treasury cut Golden Global Bank off from the US financial system on September 4, blocking dollar transactions and freezing US-based assets. It is the first time Operation Economic Outcast, Washington's renewed pressure campaign against Iran, has targeted a bank in a NATO ally. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the European Union has joined the operation and warned more banks would face the same treatment.
Updated Sep 6
As of August 2026: Issued the designations
Hizballah has learned to move money the way a smuggler moves gold: in suitcases, on passenger flights, far from any bank a regulator can reach. On August 19, the U.S. Treasury named 10 people it says run that pipeline, flying cash between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran.
Updated Aug 21
As of July 2026: Executing the list cleanup
The U.S. keeps a list of people, companies, and ships that American banks are barred from touching. It now holds more than 17,000 names. On July 2, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) struck 76 of them off.
Updated Jul 2
As of July 2026: Imposed the June 30 sanctions
On June 30, the U.S. Treasury froze the American assets of two Mexican men and nine companies, accusing them of funneling tens of millions of dollars a year to Mexico's most powerful cartel through a fuel-smuggling ring. Mexico's financial intelligence unit moved the same day, blocking 20 entities: the 11 OFAC targets plus nine additional people and firms it identified on its own.
Updated Jul 1
As of May 2026: Operating under TFI
John Hurley served eight months as the Treasury Department's chief sanctions enforcer before resigning amid friction with Secretary Scott Bessent. His February 25 departure followed months of internal clashes over sanctions aggressiveness and a specific dispute regarding federal surveillance of financial transactions involving Minnesota's Somali community, to which Hurley objected on data-privacy grounds.
Updated May 29
As of May 2026: Sanctions engine defining which ships and networks become targets
The U.S. Coast Guard is now chasing a third Venezuela-linked tanker in international waters near Venezuela—under a judicial seizure order. Two other tankers have already been stopped in the past 11 days, including one dramatic helicopter boarding that the administration amplified on social media.
Updated May 15
As of May 2026: Controls the sanctions licensing that can enable or block CITGO-related transactions.
CITGO has been the prize everyone can see, but almost nobody can touch. For years, a single U.S. sanctions lever has decided whether the PDVSA 2020 bond's "CITGO shares" collateral is a real hammer—or just a threat on paper.
As of May 2026: Issued the general licenses that define what Russia-linked transactions remain legally possible
Sanctions are supposed to close doors. On December 17, the U.S. quietly propped two doors back open again, even as it slammed others shut. One narrow lane keeps Sakhalin-2 crude flowing to Japan; the other preserves financial channels for civil nuclear projects, even when payments touch sanctioned Russian banks—both running through June 18, 2026.
As of May 2026: Designated CSRL and El Marro; expanded compliance exposure for facilitators
Treasury sanctioned the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL) and its jailed leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz ("El Marro") on December 17, 2025. Washington's campaign against huachicol money then shifted toward the infrastructure that makes stolen hydrocarbons tradable: shipping, routing, and due diligence.
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