The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on Nicaraguan government officials, firms operating in Nicaragua’s gold sector, and individuals tied to the forcible seizure of a U.S.-owned mining asset. 

The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added five individuals and seven companies to the Specially Designated Nationals list, including Maurice Facundo Ortega Murillo and Daniel Edmundo Ortega Murillo, two sons of Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega. Other designees include Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Santiago Hernan Bermudez Tapia, and the gold-sector firms Exportadora de Metales Sociedad Anonima, Grupo Minero Xiloa S.A., Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Mineria Group S.A., Thomas Metal S.A., Brother Metal S.A., Zhong Fu Development S.A., and Santa Rita Mining Company S.A. 

U.S. officials claim that the Ortega-Murillo government has, since 2020, restructured Nicaragua’s mining industry into a network of front companies and frontmen used to generate foreign currency, launder sanctioned assets, and reinforce political control. The department said high-ranking figures in the regime have benefited from rising gold exports, with state mining company ENIMINAS playing an outsized role in channeling profits and kickbacks. 

The action also focused on the 2025 occupation of a plant owned by BHMB Mining Nicaragua S.A., a Nicaraguan business founded with investment from a U.S. company. Treasury said companies associated with the regime broke into the facility, removed security personnel, and took physical control of the property without compensation. 

Treasury tied Thursday’s move to earlier pressure on Nicaragua’s gold trade. 

In May 2024, OFAC sanctioned Compania Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anonima, known as COMINTSA, and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, saying both were regime-aligned gold companies generating revenue for the Ortega-Murillo government. Treasury said Thursday that Grupo Minero Xiloa became more prominent after those sanctions, while Nelson Francisco Sobalvarro transferred COMINTSA mining concessions before and after the earlier action. 

Read more from the Treasury Department here