US Treasury enforcement actions against Sudan sanctions violators delayed?
By Wasil Ali
March 17, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The US Department of Treasury has yet to name the companies that have violated sanctions imposed on Sudan.
Adam Szubin, Director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) told Reuters in an interview early February that his office came up with a list of companies who operate inside the US that failed to comply with Sudan sanctions.
The senior US official said that a crackdown on the violators of Sudan sanctions will impact both US and foreign companies operating domestically.
The new enforcement actions against violators were expected to be released after the regulations relating to the Senate resolution S.1612 (IEEPA) are published in the Federal Register.
The “International Emergency Economic Powers Enhancement Act” (IEEPA) increases civil and criminal penalties for violations of economic sanctions imposed.
Under IEEPA a company or a person who violates any sanctions will be subject to a $250,0000 fine per transaction or “an amount that is twice the amount of the transaction that is the basis of the violation with respect to which the penalty is imposed”.
Sudan Tribune contacted the US Treasury for an update on Szubin’s statements and whether civil penalties against those violators will go as planned.
However John Rankin, a Public Affairs Specialist on Terrorism and Financial in the US Treasury declined to comment on any part of Sudan Tribune inquiry.
The highly unexpected response from the US treasury official brings into question what Sudanese official have recently said about normalization of ties between Washington and Khartoum.
The Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor told reporters after meeting with US special envoy Richard Williamson that he expects restoring a U.S. ambassador in Sudan, lifting some or all the sanctions and removing Sudan from the list of sponsors of terrorism between now and the coming four months … maximum six months”.
The US State Department was quick that day to downplay statements made by Alor saying that Sudan “take the kind of concrete steps to halt violence by the Janjaweed (militias) and others in Darfur”.
It remains to be seen whether Alor’s statements were overblown or if they reflect willingness by Washington to mend ties with its counter terrorism strong ally. It was interesting that Williamson did not try that day to make any comments on Alor’s remarks.
Professor Eric Reeves, a long time expert on Sudan questioned why the US Treasury “will not speak explicitly about the fate of those companies or the consequences of US sanctions being imposed, if indeed they have been imposed. Adam Szubin, Director of OFAC, could not have been more explicit about the assembly of this list of noncompliant companies in early February”.
“Is this the result of embarrassing lobbying on the part of affected companies? We can’t know until Treasury officials are more forthcoming” Reeves added.
However it is also possible that the turmoil facing the US financial markets may have shifted the focus of Treasury for the time being.
Last May the US president George Bush ordered stiffened sanctions on Sudan that will bar 31 companies controlled by the government from doing business in the U.S. financial system as well as sanctions on four Sudanese individuals, including two senior Sudanese officials and a rebel leader suspected of involvement in the Darfur violence.
(ST)