The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated two individuals and five entities that profit through money laundering and importing petroleum products into territory controlled by Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis, according to a press release on Tuesday. The Iran-backed Houthis gain hundreds of millions of dollars annually by working with Yemeni businessmen to tax petroleum imports, generating critical revenue that funds the Houthis’ destabilizing activities in the region.
Today’s action targets a network of individuals and their companies located across Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who are among the most significant importers of petroleum products and money launderers that benefit the Houthis.
“The Houthis collaborate with opportunistic businessmen to reap enormous profits from the importation of petroleum products and to enable the group’s access to the international financial system,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender. “These networks of shady businesses underpin the Houthis’ terrorist machine, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to disrupt these schemes.”
The Houthis work with privately owned companies to ensure continued shipments of petroleum products into areas they control in Yemen. Once in Yemen, the Houthis profit even further by controlling the selling price of these petroleum products to the Yemeni people, typically at a significant markup.
As a result of this action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons, the release goes on to say.
The original announcement can be found here.