On October 17, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 10 individuals and entities and identified 8 vessels as blocked property for their alleged ties to a network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, a financial official backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (“IRGC-QF”) and Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis. The United States designated Al-Jamal in 2021 and the IRGC-QF in 2007. The Houthis were also designated by the State Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (“SDGT”) in February 2024. The new designations target companies responsible for the illegal transport of Iranian petroleum and petroleum products, the companies’ owners, and captains of the vessels used to ship the illicit oil. According to OFAC, the revenues generated by al-Jamal’s network are used to support Houthi attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea and missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) attacks on Israel.
The designations were imposed pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups and their supporters. 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.