Treasury Sanctions Paraguayan Individuals and Associated Entities: New SDNs Under Global Magnitsky Program
- Category: Blog - Denied Party Digest
Treasury Sanctions Paraguayan Individuals and Associated Entities: New SDNs Under Global Magnitsky Program
On August 24, 2021, the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three Paraguayan individuals and five associated entities under the anti-corruption Global Magnitsky sanctions program.
The individuals, Kassem Mohamad Hijazi, Khalil Ahmad Hijazi, and Liz Paola Doldan Gonzalez, and their associated business entities have been added to the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List) for bribery and other corruption-related activities. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from any transactions with SDN persons or property.
While the sanctions are based on "illicit finance risks and activities in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay converge," Paraguay is not the subject of a country-specific sanctions program. Rather, the designations were made under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program, which aims to take action against "persons determined, among other things, to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, certain human rights abuses or corrupt acts anywhere in the world."
This action reinforces the need to screen business partners in any country. OFAC issued a detailed press release on the new designations, including detailed background on anti-corruption efforts and concerns in the TBA.