After many rumors of potential changes to the U.S. policy on Venezuela, on October 18, 2023 the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued four general licenses, representing a significant shift in its Venezuela sanctions program.  Most pertinent for the shipping industry, certain sanctions that were in place against Petróleos

After Venezuela’s government and its political opposition agreed on electoral guarantees for 2024 presidential elections, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued four general licenses suspending select sanctions:

  • General License 44 temporarily authorizes all transactions related to Venezuelan oil and gas sector operations, including producing, lifting, selling, and exporting oil or gas from Venezuela

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) recently reached a settlement with a multi-asset trading platform where, to settle its potential civil liability for violations of sanctions against Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, the crypto platform agreed to pay $72,230.

In a recent post, our team outlines the alleged sanctions violations and