On December 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated twelve individuals and entities for supporting the Houthis by facilitating the group’s efforts to procure dual-use and weapons components and to generate revenues that support its destabilizing activities. The Department of State designated the Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (“SDGT”) in February 2024. According to OFAC, the new designees serve as high-ranking Houthi financial officials or have laundered funds, shipped illicit petroleum or trafficked arms for the benefit of the Houthis. The designees include Hashem Ismail Ali Ahmad Al-Madani, the head of the Houthi-aligned Central Bank of Yemen in Sana’a who allegedly serves a key figure in the Houthi movement and Wail Muhammad Said Abd-al-Wadud, a Houthi logistics official who allegedly facilitates Houthi smuggling operations.
In addition to the new designations, OFAC also identified five cryptocurrency wallets associated with Sai’d al-Jamal, a Houthi financial official who is backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (“IRGC-QF”). Al-Jamal was designated in the United States in June 2021 for providing material assistance to the IRGC-QF, and the IRGC-QF was designated in the United States in 2007 for providing material support to multiple terrorist groups.
The new designations were imposed pursuant to the counterterrorism authority, Executive Order 13224, as amended. 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.