OFAC Adds Two ICC Officials and Venezuela-Related Entity to SDN List
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List on 18 August 2026, adding two individuals under the International Criminal Court-related sanctions programme and one entity under the Venezuela sanctions programme.
The newly designated individuals are Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese national. Both were added under the International Criminal Court-related sanctions authority identified by OFAC as ICC-EO14203.
OFAC separately added BluWaves Properties Limited, a British Virgin Islands company established in March 2021, under the Venezuela-related sanctions programme. OFAC’s 18 August action lists the entity under Venezuela-EO13850.
General License 12 provides a limited wind-down period
Alongside the designations, OFAC issued International Criminal Court-related General License 12. The licence authorises transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to wind down dealings involving Akane, Seye, or entities in which either person owns, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, a 50% or greater interest.
The wind-down authorisation runs until 12:01 a.m. EDT on 17 September 2026. Any payment to a blocked person must be made into a blocked interest-bearing account in the United States in accordance with the International Criminal Court-Related Sanctions Regulations.
General License 12 does not broadly authorise dealings with other persons blocked under the same sanctions regulations unless separately authorised.
For sanctions compliance teams, the update requires screening systems and customer or counterparty records to reflect the new SDN entries, while organisations with pre-existing exposure to the ICC-related designees should assess whether any transactions qualify for the temporary wind-down authorisation.
