Regulation

OFAC’s latest Terrorist Assets Report is out

This is OFAC’s 27th “Annual Report to the Congress on Assets in the United States Relating to Terrorist Countries and Organizations Engaged in International Terrorism” – a mouthful, I know.

Some highlights:

  • $46.181 million in blocked terrorist organization assets, up from $43.606 million in 2017
  • Biggest increases in this group – Hizballah blocked assets increased from $9.814 million to $11.601 million, Hamas went from $1.143 million to $1.364 million, the IRGC-Quds Force increased from $14.491 million to $14.989 million, ISIL went from $251,613 to $657,689, Lashkar-e Tayyiba increased from $218,639 to $397,774, and the Taliban increased from $10,728 to $206,805.
  • State Sponsors of Terrorism have $216.83 million in blocked funds, up from $201.53 million in 2017
  • Of that increase, the overwhelming bulk is due to North Korea (almost $11 million), with Iran ($2.9 million) and Syria ($1.4 million) making up the rest
  • State Sponsors of terrorism own a bit of real estate: Syria owns 4 properties, Iran 11, and Bank Melli indirectly has an ownership interest in a NY building

Link:

Calendar Year 2018 Terrorist Assets Report

New TAFA Quarterly Report is out

The UK publishes a quarterly report about its counter-terrorism sanctions program – and the one for Q4 of 2018 (calendar) is out. Here are the highlights:

  • At the end of the quarter, 9,000 GBP was frozen under TAFA, 18,000 under EU Reg 2580/2001, and 70,000 under the ISIL/Al-Qaida regime (EU Reg 881/2002). These represent 6 TAFA accounts or payments, 3 for EC 2580/2001 and 36 for ISIL-AQ. One item was frozen during the quarter under ISIL-AQ.
  • There were 3 new ISIL-AQ designations during the quarter and one new one under EU Reg 2016/1686 .
  • There were 5 TAFA renewals during the quarter
  • Under the ISIL-AQ regime, 8 licenses were issued during the quarter. And there are still 4 active General Licenses.

Link:

TAFA October-December 2018 Report

February 26, 2019: OFAC issues standards guidance for data submissions

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Office of Compliance and Enforcement (“OCE”) is issuing OCE’s Data Delivery Standards Guidance

2/26/2019

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Office of Compliance and Enforcement (“OCE”) is issuing OCE’s Data Delivery Standards Guidance: Preferred Practices for Productions to OFAC (“OCE’s Data Delivery Standards”). OCE’s Data Delivery Standards provides guidance regarding submissions and the technical standards for the preferred format in which to submit electronic document productions to OCE, including administrative subpoena responses, self-disclosures, and other documents or reports. OCE has also updated the Data Delivery Standards to include sections addressing preferred practices for organizing document productions, file size and delivery instructions for electronic submissions, instructions for submitting specific types of files, and an addendum with additional technical document production specifications. This document supersedes and replaces in its entirety, OFAC Enforcement’s 2013 Data Delivery Standards.

Link:

OFAC Notice

November 7, 2018: 26th Annual Terrorist Assets Report

This is the 26th annual report to Congress on terrorist assets frozen in the United States. There’s a table that shows that there is about $43.6 million in blocked assets under the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) and Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) programs. Of that, about 14.5 million are assets of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, 9.8 million are Hizballah assets, and 7.4 million are Al-Qaida assets.

There are also assets frozen related to state sponsors of terrorism, and those amounts dwarf the others – $201.53 million. Of that, Iranian assets represent more than half (104.5 million), with North Korea (63.4 million) and Syria (33.63 million) making up the rest. 

Link:

Terrorist Assets Report

OFSI ‘s April-June Quarterly TAFA Report issued

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) issues a quarterly report on the functioning of the Terrorist Asset Freezing etc. Act 2010 (TAFA). Here is the text of the report:

Annex 1 (statistical tables omitted)

 Written Ministerial Statement

    ____________________________________________________________________

Operation of the UK’s Counter-Terrorist Asset Freezing Regime: 1 April 2018 to 30 June 2018

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen): Under the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act 2010 (TAFA 2010), the Treasury is required to prepare a quarterly report regarding its exercise of the powers conferred on it by Part 1 of TAFA 2010. This written statement satisfies that requirement for the period 1 April 2018 to 30 June 2018.

This report also covers the UK’s implementation of the UN’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida asset freezing regime (ISIL-AQ), and the operation of the EU’s asset freezing regime under EU Regulation (EC) 2580/2001 concerning external terrorist threats to the EU (also referred to as the CP 931 regime).

Under the UN’s ISIL-AQ asset freezing regime, the UN has responsibility for designations and the Treasury, through the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), has responsibility for licensing and compliance with the regime in the UK under the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida (Asset-Freezing) Regulations 2011.

Under EU Regulation 2580/2001, the EU has responsibility for designations and OFSI has responsibility for licensing and compliance with the regime in the UK under Part 1 of TAFA 2010.

A new EU asset freezing regime under EU Regulation (2016/1686) was implemented on 22 September 2016. This permits the EU to make autonomous Al-Qaida and ISIL (Da’esh) listings.

The following tables set out the key asset-freezing activity in the UK during the quarter.

The recently passed Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA) will help ensure that UK counterterrorist sanctions powers remain a useful tool for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to consider utilising, while also meeting the UK’s international obligations.

Under SAMLA, a designation could be made where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the person or group is or has been involved in a defined terrorist activity and that designation is appropriate. This approach is in line with the UK’s current approach under UN and EU sanctions and would be balanced by procedural protections such as the ability of designated persons to challenge the Government in court.

Licensing

No licences were issued under any of the CT regimes during this quarter. Four General licences remained current during this quarter.3

Listings

All persons subject to financial sanctions

Consolidated list of all the individuals, organisations and businesses subject to financial sanctions in the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-sanctions-consolidated-list-of- targets/consolidated-list-of-targets

UN and EU sanctions on the Al-Qaida and ISIL (Da’esh) organisations

Current designations under the UN’s ISIL-AQ regime and EU Regulation 2016/1686:4

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/current-list-of-designated-persons-al-qaida

Current designations under the UK and EU’s terrorist asset-freezing regime

Current designations under TAFA 2010 and EU Regulation (EC) 2580/2001:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/current-list-of-designated-persons-terrorism-and- terrorist-financing

The following descriptors are included in the ‘Other Information’ field of the consolidated list:

• ‘UK listing only’ – listed under TAFA 2010 only

• ‘Both UK and EU listing’ – listed under TAFA 2010 and under the EU’s asset freezing regime 2580/2001

• ‘EU listing only’ – listed under EU’s asset freezing regime. The prohibitions are found in Council Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 with penalties given by TAFA 2010  

Statistics:

Frozen funds:

  • under TAFA: 6 frozen accounts, 9000 GBP
  • under EU Reg 2580/2001: 1 account for less than 100 GBP
  • Under ISIL-AQ Regime (EU Reg 881/2002): 35 accounts for 70,000 GBP

No new TAFA designations, but 2 new ISIL-AQ designations

No TAFA delistings, but 1 Final Designation renewal

Link:

Quarterly Report