On August 10, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), in coordination in the United Kingdom and Canada, designated the former governor of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salameh (“Salameh”) and four close associates, pursuant to Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13441. According to OFAC’s press release, Salameh was designated for alleged “corrupt and unlawful actions [that] have contributed to the breakdown of the rule of law in Lebanon” and his close associates were designated for “having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Salameh.” The designations are noteworthy in that they were undertaken pursuant to OFAC’s determinations under sections 1(a)(i)(A) and (B) of E.O. 13441 – which provide authority for OFAC designations in response to actions “contribut[ing] to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Lebanon”, among other sanctionable activities – rather than E.O. 13818 (the “Global Magnitsky Act E.O.”), which authorizes the imposition of sanctions against individuals and entities involved in serious human rights abuses, corruption, or other malign activities, including any person determined to “degrade the rule of law,” on a worldwide basis.
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