The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently flagged four companies working for Venezuela’s oil sector. President Nicolas Maduro has been heading an illegitimate regime in Venezuela. He has been using maritime companies and their vessels to misuse Venezuela’s oil assets for personal gains. Such usage of Venezuela’s oil assets is unacceptable to the US. Therefore, authorities have warned entities against engaging in such activities to retain access to the US financial system.
Three of the four target entities, namely, Afranav Maritime Ltd., Adamant Maritime Ltd., and Sanibel Shiptrade Ltd., are based in the Marshall Islands. The fourth one, Seacomber Ltd., is based in Greece. The US has blocked all activity related to these entities and made it mandatory to report such activities to OFAC. Moreover, authorities have also blocked the entities which are directly or indirectly owned (50% or more) by the 4 designated entities. Further, OFAC has also blocked four vessels belonging to these entities.
These sanctions may be removed if the designated entities help restore democratic practices in Venezuela, stay away from abuses committed by the illegitimate Maduro regime, stop exploiting the country’s natural resources like oil and gold, or fight against corruption in the regime.