Compliance officers in the shipping industry should be on alert following several new sanctions designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against a network of Mexican individuals and companies said to be helping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro evade U.S. sanctions.
On June 18, OFAC announced it had blacklisted three individuals and eight foreign entities. It also identified two vessels as blocked property for their activities in, or associated with, a network attempting to evade U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector. Among the individuals targeted include Joaquin Leal Jimenez (Leal), Olga Maria Zepeda Esparza (Zepeda), and her mother, Veronica Esparza Garcia (Esparza). OFAC also designated the two Mexico-based companies that Esparza and Zepeda co-own (Libre Abordo) and control (the Schlager Business Group).
