Office of Foreign Assets Control

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals. OFAC acts against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States. OFAC is in the news recently due to its involvement in several international events. These include temporarily lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded onto vessels to ease crude supply concerns, boarding a Venezuela-linked oil tanker in the Indian Ocean to target illicit oil trade, and imposing fresh sanctions on Iran in response to the regime's violent crackdown on protests, with allegations of Iranian elites moving money out of the country to evade these sanctions. These actions highlight OFAC's role in using sanctions as a tool to influence global events and enforce U.S. policy.