Shortly before the holidays the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated a number of individuals pursuant to Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13581, the Transnational Criminal Organization Sanctions, for their involvement with the Yamaguchi-gumi Criminal Syndicate, an organization accused of being aligned with the Yakuza. The individuals designated included Tadashi Irie, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Toshio Masaki, and Shoroku Ishida, all alleged senior members of the crime syndicate. The result of the designations is that U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with the designated parties and any assets they have under U.S. jurisdiction are blocked.

Among the individuals designated by OFAC, a number of them have previously received prison sentences for criminal activities. Among these activities were payments for hitmen to execute rival gang members, and embezzlement. While the OFAC designations are not necessarily any indication that these individuals have carried out any crimes in violation of U.S. law; there is also nothing to say that these individuals are not also charged out of the U.S. on criminal charges which have been sealed. The latter seems unlikely, however, since the U.S. and Japan maintain an extradition treaty and those individuals who were arrested and given prison sentences received such sentences in the very recent past.

The designations which have been placed on these individuals are removable if the designated parties submit information and evidence to demonstrate that either the designation was made in error, or there has been a change in circumstances warranting a rescission of the designation. The former is nearly impossible to show as OFAC believes their designation process is flawless. There is hope in pursuing the latter strategy–change in circumstances–although it it is not easy either. OFAC typically wants to see a party voluntary cease engagement in the activity which formed the basis of the initial designation. Even in cases where this occurs, OFAC tends to take a long period of time to review the case to determine whether or not a removal is warranted. As such, if one is serious about removing a designation then they would be wise to begin the process as soon as possible.