U.S. Treasury — Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

The primary office administering and enforcing U.S. economic sanctions based on foreign policy and national security goals. - Operating under TFI

John Hurley spent seven months as the Treasury Department's chief sanctions enforcer before friction with Secretary Scott Bessent pushed him toward the exit. His expected departure follows months of internal clashes over how aggressively to wield America's most potent non-military weapon—economic sanctions—and against whom.

Updated Feb 15

OFAC writes the rulebook for sanctions—and the exceptions that keep the global economy from snapping. - Issued the general licenses that define what Russia-linked transactions remain legally possible

Sanctions are supposed to close doors. On December 17, the U.S. quietly propped two doors back open—again—even as it slammed others shut. One narrow lane keeps Sakhalin-2 crude flowing to Japan. The other preserves financial channels for civil nuclear projects, even when payments touch sanctioned Russian banks. Both carve-outs now run through June 18, 2026.

Updated Jan 30

OFAC is the gatekeeper: until it publishes authorizations, markets can’t treat the envoy’s promise as real. - Controls the legal switch for any potash sanctions rollback

A U.S. envoy went to Minsk to talk about prisoners—and walked out with both a promise and a delivery. After John Coale's December 2025 visit with Alexander Lukashenko, Treasury's OFAC published General License 13 on December 15, authorizing transactions with Belaruskali, Belarusian Potash Company, and Agrorozkvit—no expiration date. Belarus responded by freeing 123 political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski and opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, the regime's most valuable hostages.

Updated Jan 11

OFAC’s designations turn shipping networks into targets with names, numbers, and consequences. - Sanctions engine defining which ships and networks become targets

The U.S. Coast Guard is now chasing a third Venezuela-linked tanker in international waters near Venezuela—under a judicial seizure order. Two other tankers have already been stopped in the past 11 days, including one dramatic helicopter boarding that the administration amplified on social media.

Updated Dec 21, 2025

Treasury’s sanctions engine—built to isolate targets from the dollar system and scare off enablers. - Designated CSRL and El Marro; expanded compliance exposure for facilitators

After Treasury sanctioned the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL) and its jailed leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz (“El Marro”) on December 17, 2025, Washington’s campaign against huachicol money moved quickly toward the infrastructure that can make stolen hydrocarbons tradable: shipping, routing, and due diligence.

Updated Dec 20, 2025

OFAC’s licenses decide whether court judgments can become actual ownership transfers involving CITGO. - Controls the sanctions licensing that can enable or block CITGO-related transactions.

CITGO has been the prize everyone can see, but almost nobody can touch. For years, a single U.S. sanctions lever has decided whether the PDVSA 2020 bond’s “CITGO shares” collateral is a real hammer—or just a threat on paper.

Updated Dec 20, 2025

OFAC is the U.S. sanctions engine that turns targets into blocked property and market fear into compliance. - Designated ship managers and vessels; issued General License S to manage safety/offloading risks

Treasury just hit Iran’s oil-smuggling “shadow fleet” where it actually hurts: the ships. On December 18, 2025, OFAC blocked 29 vessels and a web of managers and front-company operators that keep Iranian oil moving when the paperwork is fake and the GPS goes dark.

Updated Dec 18, 2025