OFAC U.S. began to send denials to Russians in unlocking assets

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury (OFAC) made the first decisions on the applications of Russian investors to unlock assets. RBC Investments got acquainted with one of these answers - this is a refusal. Such refusals to unlock are known to sanctions lawyers from the service Razmorozka.com, the investment bank Sinara, as well as law firms Delcredere and Maxima Legal.

The document states that the applicant’s appeal includes an organization or organizations previously sanctioned under Operation Economic Rogue (a package of US measures against Iran and those who support it). On September 10, the approach to these sanctions was tightened. Razmorozka customers received 10 responses last Friday, September 25. Sinar is aware of one such case. It's all rejection.

Lawyers emphasize that the decisions were one of the first and “most massive” in relation to the assets of private investors frozen in Euroclear and Clearstream, since the Russians had to obtain a license from the US administration to defrost them in 2024 due to sanctions against the Moscow Exchange group.

About why the American OFAC refused the Russians to unlock assets, and here sanctions against Iran and how these refusals will further affect the procedure of unlocking assets – read in the subscription RBC.