On May 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two companies associated with the Wagner Group – Mining Industries SARLU and Logistique Economique Etrangere SARLU – in an effort to combat Russia’s destabilizing activities in Africa. The Wagner Group has been designated in the United States since 2017. Since the Wagner Group’s arrival in the CAR in late 2017, the Kremlin-backed group has allegedly engaged in destabilizing activities involving illicit gold and diamond mining at the expense of CAR’s sovereignty, in an effort to establish a massive security and business network in the CAR and other African countries.
The designations were imposed pursuant to Executive Order 14024 for operating in the financial services sector of the Russian economy or for being owned or controlled by a designated entity. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated persons within the United States or within the possession or control of a U.S. person are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving a designated person. Entities owned 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.