OFAC

The U.S. on Thursday blacklisted five senior Nicaraguan officials for their alleged role in helping Nicaragua to consolidate authoritarian power through financial controls, labor policy, surveillance, and military intelligence operations.

A senior Treasury Department official is preparing to resign after privately raising objections to a White House-backed initiative aimed at alleged fraud tied to the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota.

A senior U.S. senator has opened an inquiry into Binance seeking records on alleged transactions that funneled nearly $2 billion to Iran-linked terrorist organizations and other entities and payments that helped circumvent sanctions on Russian oil, Bloomberg said. 

Western governments marked the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with new measures targeting the Kremlin’s revenue streams and enabling networks, despite stalled efforts by the EU to approve a broad sanctions package.

The head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo, appears to own a portfolio of property in Dubai valued at approximately $1.7 million, according to new research by The Sentry. 

Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic has identified four cryptocurrency exchanges that allegedly facilitate Russia sanctions evasion, including by helping to convert rubles into crypto-assets and move value across borders without the direct aid of traditional banking channels. 

A blacklisted, former Belarusian official is working with Russia to disguise the origin of agricultural products from Ukraine’s occupied territories, according to new reporting by Ukrinform. The news agency, which is Ukraine’s only national news service and is controlled by the country’s Cabinet of Ministers, said it based its reporting on documents obtained by the Belarusian opposition group […]

An IT misconfiguration has exposed an apparent network of oil traders that has helped move at least $90 billion of Russian crude and has become central to keeping export revenues flowing to the Kremlin, the Financial Times reported Friday. 

South Florida Republican officials are pressing for tougher scrutiny of businesses that send goods or provide services linked to Cuba, the Miami Herald reported.

The top Trump administration official leading U.S. sanctions policy and the nation’s financial intelligence unit is set to exit the role amid friction with his boss, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.