Tag Archives: U.S. Treasury Department

It’s completely asinine for Federal Regulator to decide it doesn’t have jurisdiction to look into Chinese battery plant in Big Rapids

Big-Rapids-water-tower

Important Takeaways:

  • Feds decline review of Chinese battery plant plans in Big Rapids, company says
  • Federal regulators have concluded they don’t have the proper jurisdiction to conduct a review of a planned $2.4 billion Chinese battery part manufacturing plant in the Big Rapids area, the company said in a Tuesday statement in which they committed to moving forward with the project.
  • The U.S. Treasury Department, according to the statement, told Gotion Inc. that the company’s purchase of land in the Big Rapids area is “not a covered real estate transaction and is not a covered transaction under the Defense Production Act of 1950.”
  • CFIUS, which reviews foreign investments for national security risks, has repeatedly declined comment when asked to confirm whether a request was made for a review of the Big Rapids project. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

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U.S. Treasury puts crypto industry on notice over rising ransomware attacks

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Suspected ransomware payments totaling $590 million were made in the first six months of this year, more than the $416 million reported for the whole of 2020, U.S. authorities said on Friday, as Washington put the cryptocurrency industry on alert about its role in combating ransomware attacks.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the average amount of reported ransomware transactions per month in 2021 was $102.3 million, with REvil/Sodinokibi, Conti, DarkSide, Avaddon, and Phobos the most prevalent ransomware strains reported.

President Joe Biden has made the government’s cybersecurity response a top priority for the most senior levels of his administration following a series of attacks this year that threatened to destabilize U.S. energy and food supplies.

Seeking to stop the use of crypto currencies in the payment of ransomware demands, Treasury told members of the crypto community they are responsible for making sure they do not “directly or indirectly” help facilitate deals prohibited by U.S. sanctions.

Its new guidance said the virtual currency industry plays an increasingly critical role in preventing those blacklisted from exploiting virtual currencies to evade sanctions.

“Treasury is helping to stop ransomware attacks by making it difficult for criminals to profit from their crimes, but we need partners in the private sector to help prevent this illicit activity,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.

The new guidance also advised virtual currency exchanges to use geolocation tools to block access from countries under U.S. sanctions.

Hackers use ransomware to take down systems that control everything from hospital billing to manufacturing. They stop only after receiving hefty payments, typically in cryptocurrency.

This year, gangs have hit numerous U.S. companies in large scale hacks. One such attack on pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline led to temporary fuel supply shortages on the U.S. East Coast. Hackers also targeted an Iowa-based agricultural company, sparking fears of disruptions to grain harvesting in the Midwest.

The Biden administration last month unveiled sanctions against cryptocurrency exchange Suex OTC, S.R.O. over its alleged role in enabling illegal payments from ransomware attacks, officials said, in the Treasury’s first such move against a virtual currency exchange over ransomware activity.

(Reporting by Chris Sanders, Chris Bing and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)

U.S. Treasury taking steps to block Taliban from accessing IMF monetary reserves

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury Department is taking steps to prevent the Taliban from accessing some $455 million worth of new International Monetary Fund reserves due to be allocated to Afghanistan next week, a Treasury official said on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not provide details on the specific actions being taken by the Treasury, which follow a letter from Republican lawmakers urging U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to “intervene” at the IMF to ensure that no IMF Special Drawing Rights are made available to the Taliban.

The IMF on Monday is due to complete a $650 billion allocation of SDRs — the fund’s unit of exchange based on dollars, euros, yen, sterling and yuan — to its 190 member countries in proportion to their shareholding in the Fund.

The increase in reserves is aimed at bolstering the balance sheets of poorer countries that have been severely strained by the coronavirus pandemic. Afghanistan, based on its 0.07% quota shareholding, stands to receive about $455 million.

The Taliban gaining access to those assets would be hard to digest in capitals around the globe, but not all countries have access to the SDRs they are allocated.

In 2019, the IMF suspended Venezuela’s SDR access after more than 50 member countries representing a majority of the Fund’s shareholding refused to recognize Nicolas Maduro’s government.

It was unclear on Wednesday how many IMF member countries are declining to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government.

Afghan and U.S. officials have said most of the Afghan central bank’s nearly $10 billion in assets are held outside Afghanistan, likely putting them beyond the insurgents’ reach. A Biden administration official previously said that any Afghan central bank assets held in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Tim Ahmann)

Ex-Treasury employee gets prison for leaks on Trump campaign officials

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former senior U.S. Treasury Department employee who pleaded guilty to conspiring to give a reporter sensitive information about Donald Trump’s onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort and others was sentenced on Thursday to six months in prison.

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, a former senior adviser in Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan.

Edwards was accused of making unauthorized disclosures of suspicious activity reports (SARs) – used by banks to alert law enforcement to potential money laundering and other crimes – to a BuzzFeed News reporter using an encrypted messaging program.

Prosecutors said the more than 2,000 reports leaked over one year concerned Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, who both oversaw Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, as well as the Russian embassy in Washington and other individuals.

The reports were a basis for articles concerning former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Edwards, 43, of Quinton, Virginia, had sought no prison time, after being charged in October 2018 and pleading guilty in January 2020.

Before being sentenced, she called herself a whistleblower who went to the media after uncovering suspicious conduct elsewhere at the Treasury Department.

Citing principles from her American Indian background, she said before being sentenced she could not “stand by” in silence, but apologized for her disclosures.

Woods said “blowing the whistle through proper channels is an incredibly valuable exercise,” but that Edwards went too far by disclosing about 50,000 records, including the SARs.

“Dr. Sours Edwards decided to abuse her position of trust,” he said.

Federal prosecutor Kimberly Ravener said Edwards’ “rampant disclosure of private information” was “unparalleled” in FinCEN history, and could have a chilling effect on banks’ willingness to file detailed SARs.

“She claimed that she followed procedure. But she made up her own,” Ravener said.

Edwards was also sentenced to three years supervised release. The BuzzFeed reporter, Jason Leopold, was not accused of wrongdoing. He embraced Edwards after meeting her outside the courthouse following the sentencing.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Brendan McDermid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

U.S. delays Chinese investment ban’s impact on certain firms

By Susan Heavey and Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday updated its ban on investments in certain Chinese military companies by delaying until May the application of the directive’s restrictions on companies with names similar to those that have been blacklisted.

In a statement posted on the U.S. Treasury Department website, the Biden administration said most investments in companies “whose name closely matches, but does not exactly match, the name of a Communist Chinese military company” would be allowed until May 27, extending the deadline which was originally set to Jan. 28.

The order does not authorize securities transactions with subsidiaries of banned Chinese military companies, it added.

In November, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration moved to prohibit U.S. investments in Chinese companies that Washington said were owned or controlled by the Chinese military in an effort to ramp up pressure on Beijing.

The order required U.S. investors to completely divest their holdings in the firms by Nov. 11, 2021 and was seen as part of a bid by Trump to cement his tough-on-China legacy.

The blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies was mandated by a 1999 law but the Defense Department only began complying by publishing names of the firms last year. The catalogue now includes 44 companies including China’s top chipmaker SMIC and oil giant CNOOC.

Questions have swirled as to how the Biden administration will handle the tough new sanctioning tool but it has so far declined to provide any insight.

Beijing has said the United States lacks evidence and described the ban as wanton oppression of its companies.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Lisa Lambert, Catherine Evans and Andrea Ricci)

U.S. hits Iran with fresh sanctions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday blacklisted a Chinese company that makes elements for steel production, 12 Iranian steel and metals makers and three foreign-based sales agents of a major Iranian metals and mining holding company, seeking to deprive Iran of revenues.

In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department named the China-based company as Kaifeng Pingmei New Carbon Materials Technology Co Ltd. (KFCC), saying it specialized in the manufacture of carbon materials and provided thousands of metric tonnes of materials to Iranian steel companies between December 2019 and June 2020.

Among the 12 Iranian companies blacklisted are the Pasargad Steel Complex and the Gilan Steel Complex Co, both of which were designated under Executive Order 13871 for operating in the Iranian steel sector.

The others are: Iran-based Middle East Mines and Mineral Industries Development Holding Co (MIDHCO), Khazar Steel Co, Vian Steel Complex, South Rouhina Steel Complex, Yazd Industrial Constructional Steel Rolling Mill, West Alborz Steel Complex, Esfarayen Industrial Complex, Bonab Steel Industry Complex, Sirjan Iranian Steel and Zarand Iranian Steel Co.

The Treasury said it was also designating MIDHCO’s Germany-based subsidiary GMI Projects Hamburg GmbH, its China-based World Mining Industry Co Ltd and U.K.-based GMI Projects Ltd for being owned or controlled by MIDHCO.

“The Trump Administration remains committed to denying revenue flowing to the Iranian regime as it continues to sponsor terrorist groups, support oppressive regimes, and seek weapons of mass destruction,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu; writiing by Arshad Mohammed; editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. imposes fresh sanctions on Syria in push for Assad to end war

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday slapped fresh sanctions on Syria, targeting its central bank and blacklisting several people and entities in a continued effort to cut off funds for President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The latest action, building on sanctions imposed on Syria earlier this year, marked another round in a U.S. campaign to push Assad’s government back into U.N.-led negotiations to end the country’s nearly decade-long war.

In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said the new sanctions add two individuals, nine business entities and the Central Bank of Syria to Washington’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

The U.S. State Department also designated Asma al-Assad, the British-born wife of the Syrian president, accusing her of impeding efforts for a political resolution to the war, and several members of her family, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. Asma al-Assad was previously hit with sanctions in June.

Millions of people have fled Syria and millions more have been internally displaced since a crackdown by Assad on protesters in 2011 led to civil war with Iran and Russia backing the government and the United States supporting the opposition.

Syria has been under U.S. and European Union sanctions that have frozen foreign-held assets of the state and hundreds of companies and individuals. Washington already bans exports to Syria and investment there by Americans, as well as transactions involving oil and hydrocarbon products.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Lisa Lambert Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Heinrich)

U.S. imposes fresh Iran-related sanctions, targets Khamenei-linked foundation

By Daphne Psaledakis and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday imposed sweeping new sanctions targeting Iran, blacklisting a foundation controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and taking aim at what Washington called Iran’s human rights abuses a year after a deadly crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

The sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department, which also targeted Iran’s intelligence minister, marked the latest action to reinforce the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran pursued by President Donald Trump’s administration. They came just over two months before Trump is due to leave office after his Nov. 3 election loss.

The department imposed sanctions on what it described as a key patronage network for Khamenei. It said it blacklisted the Bonyad Mostazafan, or the Foundation of the Oppressed, which is controlled by Khamenei, in the move also targeting 10 individuals and 50 entities associated with the foundation in sectors including energy, mining and financial services.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of the targeted individuals and entities and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

The charitable foundation – an economic, cultural, and social welfare institution – has amassed vast amounts of wealth to the detriment of the rest of the Iranian economy and controls hundreds of companies and properties confiscated since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“Iran’s Supreme Leader uses Bonyad Mostazafan to reward his allies under the pretense of charity,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

“The United States will continue to target key officials and revenue-generating sources that enable the regime’s ongoing repression of its own people,” Mnuchin added.

Trump, who has taken a hard line toward Tehran during his presidency and abandoned an international nuclear agreement with Iran reached by his predecessor Barack Obama, last week asked for options on attacking Iran’s main nuclear site, but ultimately decided against taking the step, a U.S. official said on Monday.

The Treasury Department also slapped sanctions on Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, accusing his ministry of playing a role in serious human rights abuses against Iranians, including during last year’s protests.

VIOLENT CRACKDOWN

The crackdown a year ago may have been the bloodiest repression of protesters in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Reuters reported last year that about 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on Nov. 15, 2019. The toll, provided to Reuters by three Iranian interior ministry officials, included at least 17 teenagers and about 400 women as well as some members of the security forces and police.

Iran’s Interior Ministry has said around 225 people were killed during the protests, which erupted after state media announced that gas prices would rise by as much as 200% and the revenue would be used to help needy families.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday also blacklisted two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials, accusing them of involvement in the killing of nearly 150 people in the city of Mahshahr during last year’s crackdown. The action bars them and their immediate families from traveling to the United States.

Rights groups said they believe Mahshahr had one of the highest protest death tolls, based on information they received from local residents. The State Department said as many as 148 civilians were killed there.

“Nations who believe in supporting the freedoms of expression and association should condemn Iran’s egregious human rights violations, and reaffirm respect for the dignity and human rights and fundamental freedoms of every person by imposing consequences on the regime as we have, today,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a separate statement.

Reuters was the first to report that sanctions on Iranians involved in the crackdown against anti-government demonstrations were expected as early as this week.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have risen since Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the 2015 deal under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from American and other sanctions. Trump restored harsh U.S. economic sanctions designed to force Tehran into a wider negotiation on curbing its nuclear program, development of ballistic missiles and support for regional proxy forces.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, set to take office on Jan. 20, has previously said he would return the United States to the nuclear deal, if Iran resumes compliance.

Some analysts have said that the piling-on of additional U.S. sanctions by Trump’s administration appeared to be aimed at making it harder for Biden to re-engage with Iran after taking office.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Will Dunham)

U.S. unfreezing Venezualan assets to help opposition fight COVID-19: Guaido

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition said on Thursday the United States has granted it access to millions of dollars of frozen Venezuelan government funds to support efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The U.S. Treasury Department had approved the release of the funds, the opposition said in a statement without specifying the total amount.

The statement said part of the released funds would go to pay some 62,000 health workers $300. During a live appearance on Twitter on Thursday night, opposition leader Juan Guaido said health workers could register accounts to receive payments of $100 a month starting Monday.

Healthcare workers in Venezuela can earn as little as $5 a month.

Guaido first announced the additional support for healthcare workers four months ago, but distribution required a permit from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), as the frozen funds were held by the New York Federal Reserve.

The opposition plans to distribute the funds using AirTM, a digital payment platform, but on Thursday, the website was blocked in Venezuela.

“You have to be very bad to block an account for men and women who are giving everything with conviction to protect our people when they are going to receive a bonus,” said Guaido.

The opposition leader added healthcare workers would be sent a manual with the steps to download a virtual private network (VPN) so they could circumvent the restrictions. AirTM also tweeted instructions how to use a VPN.

Guaido has been recognized by more than 50 countries as Venezuela’s rightful president after assuming an interim presidency in 2019 on the grounds that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was fraudulent.

In July, the opposition obtained permission to distribute $17 million in funds frozen in the United States that would be channeled through international health organizations to purchase supplies for medical workers.

The license also approves another $4.5 million to support Venezuelans at risk of death, an opposition press release said.

Venezuela is suffering economic collapse and its crumbling health system has so far registered 37,567 cases of COVID-19 and 311 deaths, although experts say the number is likely to be higher due to widespread insufficient testing.

(Reporting by Sarah Kinosian; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

U.S. Treasury to start distributing $4.8 billion in pandemic funds to tribal governments

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department will begin distributing $4.8 billion in pandemic-relief funds to Native American tribal governments in all U.S. states on Tuesday, the Treasury and Interior Departments said in a joint statement.

Payments would begin Tuesday to help the tribes respond to the novel coronavirus outbreak, based on population data in U.S. Census figures, the statement said, while payments based on employment and expenditure data would be made at a later date.

Amounts calculated for Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act regional and village corporations, for-profit businesses that serve tribal villages in Alaska, would be held back until pending litigation relating to their eligibility was resolved, they said.

The decision frees up about 60% of the $8 billion in funds earmarked for Native tribes in the CARES Act, after delays caused by a legal dispute among the nation’s native populations over who is entitled to the aid.

Some tribes in the lower 48 states had sued to say the Alaska tribal corporations were not eligible for the aid since they were not tribal governments.

The Treasury and Interior departments have decided to proceed with disbursing some of the aid while the litigation continues.

Native tribes have been seriously impacted by the outbreak, with the Navajo Nation, which resides in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, trailing only the hardest-hit states New Jersey and New York in terms of the highest infection rate, according to Bettina Ramon, with the People for the American Way think-tank.

Health disparities, higher rates of poverty and a lack of insurance make tribal groups especially vulnerable, she said, noting casinos, a big source of income in some Native communities, were also omitted from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Treasury would distribute the remaining 40% of the $8 billion based on the total number of persons employed by the Native tribes and any tribally-owned entity, the statement said, as well as the amount of higher expenses faced by the tribe in the fight against the virus.

Treasury would work with the tribes to confirm employment numbers and seek additional information regarding higher expenses due to the public health emergency.

The pending litigation had introduced additional uncertainty into the process of making payments to the tribes, but Treasury said it was working to “make payments of the remaining amounts as promptly as possible consistent with the Department’s obligation to ensure that allocations are made in a fair and appropriate manner.”

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul and Bernadette Baum)