Yesterday, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced designations to their list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List). These designations were made pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Trafficking Kingpin Designation Act (“Kingpin Act”), and pursuant to Executive Order 13224 and the Global Terrorist Sanctions Regulations. The designations made yesterday by OFAC targeted alleged members of the money laundering network of Ayman Joumaa, who is accused by OFAC of heading a large scale international narcotics trafficking organization based in Lebanon. The individuals and entities designated yesterday include: Ibrahim Chibli, Abbas Hussein Harb, Ali Houssein Harb, Kassem Mohamad Saleh, Bodega Michigan, Importadora Silvania, C.A. and Importadora Silvania.

The entries on the OFAC SDN List often include information regarding the designated parties’ location, nationality, place of birth, date of birth, and passport and foreign identification numbers. In addition to this information, OFAC is now providing “linked to” information. This information identifies the the other designated parties that the party identified in the entry is linked to. Although this type of information was previously available in OFAC entries it was formerly referred to as “c/o”. Due to OFAC’s changes to the OFAC SDN List data system announced on June 13, 2011.

The changes announced in the way data files and SDN entries are described do not really offer any additional transparency in the information provide regarding SDNs or the bases of their designations, however, the new formatting describing SDNs does make the SDN List easier to follow and easier to identify who a designated entity is linked to. The relevance of being able to identify linked parties heavily factors into the OFAC SDN reconsideration process. A large part of the reconsideration process for those who feel they have been wrongly included on OFAC’s SDN List is to sever ties with other designated parties with whom the party seeking reconsideration is tied to which may be involved in some type of nefarious, sanctionable activity. That said, those seeking reconsideration usually are unsure of which parties with whom they have relationships have caused their SDN designation. As such, seeing which entities or individuals OFAC believes the party seeking reconsideration is linked to cannot only help in establishing which ties need to be severed, but also help the determination of such information more quickly, which will lead to an overall expedited reconsideration process.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.