InfoBytes Blog
OFAC sanctions IRGC foundation and Iranian senior officials
On January 23, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13553 against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Cooperative Foundation, five of the foundation’s board members, the Deputy Minister of Intelligence and Security, and four senior IRGC commanders in Iran. According to OFAC, the sanctions—imposed in coordination with the UK and EU—target a key economic pillar of the IRGC.
OFAC stressed that this “is the ninth round of OFAC designations targeting actors responsible for the crackdown on peaceful demonstrators and efforts to disrupt and cut Iran’s access to the global internet since nationwide protests began in 2022.” As a result of the sanctions, all property and interests in property belonging to the sanctioned persons that are in the U.S. or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Further, “any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.” U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any dealings involving the property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons. Persons that engage in certain transactions with the designated persons may themselves be exposed to sanctions, and “any foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitates a significant transaction or provides significant financial services for any of the persons designated today could be subject to U.S. sanctions.”