United States Department of the Treasury
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the
Under Secretary of the Treasury for
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign
policy and national security goals against targeted foreign states,
organizations, and individuals.
The current director of OFAC is Adam J. Szubin.
History
Involvement of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in economic sanctions against foreign states dates to the War of 1812, when Secretary Albert Gallatin administered sanctions
against Great Britain in retaliation for the harassment of American sailors. [1]
The Division of Foreign Assets Control, the immediate predecessor to OFAC, was established in December 1950. Predecessor
agencies of the Division of Foreign Assets Control include Foreign Funds Control, which existed from 1940 to 1947, and the Office
of International Finance (1947 to 1950). OFAC's earliest predecessor, Foreign Funds Control, was established by Executive Order 8389 as a unit of the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury on
April 10, 1940. The authority to establish Foreign Funds Control
was derived from the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. Among other
operations, Foreign Funds Control administered wartime import controls over enemy assets and restrictions on trade with enemy
states. It also participated in administering the Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals,
or the "Black List", and took censuses of foreign-owned assets in the United States and
American-owned assets abroad. Foreign Funds Control was abolished in 1947, with its functions transferred to the newly
established Office of International Finance (OIF). In 1948, OIF activities relating to blocked
foreign funds were transferred to the Office of Alien Property, an agency within the
Department of Justice. [2]
The Division of Foreign Assets Control was established in the Office of International Finance by a Treasury Department order
in 1950, following the entry of the People's Republic of China into the
Korean War; President Harry S Truman declared a
national emergency and blocked all Chinese and North Korean assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
In addition to blocking Chinese and North Korean assets, the Division administered and
certain regulations and orders issued under the amended Trading with the Enemy Act. [3]
On October 15, 1962, by a Treasury Department order, the
Division of Foreign Assets Control became the Office of Foreign Assets Control. [4]
Authority and activities
In addition to the Trading with the Enemy Act, OFAC derives its authority from a variety of U.S. federal laws regarding embargoes and economic sanctions.
In enforcing economic sanctions, OFAC acts to prevent "prohibited transactions," which are described by OFAC as trade or
financial transactions and other dealings in which U.S. persons may not engage unless authorized by OFAC or expressly exempted by
statute. OFAC has the authority to grant exemptions to prohibitions on such transactions, either by issuing a general license
for certain categories of transactions, or by specific licenses issued on a case-by-case basis. [5]
Specially Designated Nationals List
-
The Specially Designated Nationals List is a publication of OFAC which lists individuals and organizations with whom
United States citizens and permanent residents are prohibited from doing
business. [6]
Lists similar to the Specially Designated Nationals List are maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce. These include the Denied
Persons List and the Entity List, which are concerned with issues of exporting goods that could pose a danger to U.S. interests if diverted or misused. While the two lists are
similar in some respects, the differing goals of the OFAC and BIS lists preclude their being combined into a "master" list.
[7] However, the SDN List is part of the Excluded Parties List System[8], a
federal initiative which also includes the BIS lists.
References
- ^ Frequently Asked
Questions. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
- ^ Records of the
Office of Foreign Assets Control. The National Archives.
- ^ Frequently Asked
Questions. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
- ^ Records of the
Office of Foreign Assets Control. The National Archives.
- ^ Frequently Asked Questions. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
- ^ Frequently Asked
Questions. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
- ^ Frequently Asked
Questions.
- ^ http://www.epls.gov
External links
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