On February 26, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Saudi Arabia’s former Deputy Head of General Intelligence Presidency Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al Asiri and Saudi Arabia’s Rapid Intervention Force (RIF) in connection with the premeditated killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The designations were made pursuant to Executive Order 13818, that builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act aimed at those engaged in serious human rights abuses and corruption around the world. Asiri was designated for being complicit in a serious human rights abuse, and the RIF was designated for being own or controlled by Saud al Qahtani, who was designated by OFAC in November of 2018 along with 16 other individuals who played a role in Khashoggi’s murder.
As a result of these designations, all interests in US property is blocked and all transactions with the sanctioned individual or entity are generally prohibited. In addition, any entity that is owned 50 percent or more by a sanctioned person is also blocked.