What is ‘Office Of Foreign Asset Control – OFAC’
A department of the U.S. Treasury that enforces economic and trade sanctions against countries and groups of individuals involved in terrorism, narcotics and other disreputable activities.
Explaining ‘Office Of Foreign Asset Control – OFAC’
The OFAC was officially created in 1950, when China entered the Korean War. President Truman declared the event a national emergency, and froze all Chinese and Korean assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The OFAC’s predecessor was the Office of Foreign Funds Control (OFFC), which was established in response to the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940.
The OFAC program runs many sanctions based on United Nations mandates. Basically, through these sanctions and trade policies, the OFAC tries to make the economic lives of these countries or groups of individuals very difficult. This is done as a way to pressure a country to conform to certain laws or regulations, or to discontinue disreptuble activity.
Further Reading
- Beware of Ofac-A Little-Known Agency Poses Challenges to International Finance – heinonline.org [PDF]
- Impact on the firm value of financial institutions from penalties for violating anti-money laundering and economic sanctions regulations – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Lost Opportunities for International Financial Institutions: Foreign Direct Investment in Cuba, Amid US Economic Sanctions – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]
- Enforcing US Economic Sanctions: Why Whale Hunting Works – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Overview and operation of us financial sanctions, including the example of Iran – heinonline.org [PDF]
- Going Fishing versus Hunting Whales: Explaining Changes in How the US Enforces Economic Sanctions – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Improving the Terrorist Finance Sanctions Process – heinonline.org [PDF]
- Office of Foreign Asset Control – heinonline.org [PDF]
