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this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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There is a lot of misreporting and misunderstanding about this. OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) exists within Treasury and is responsible for enforcing sanctions usually created by executive order ("EO"), or very rarely, Congress. EOs and OFAC interpretation are very specific: some sanctions, such as the ones on the export of Iranian crude/products, are explicitly extraterritorial. Meaning, the US reserves the right to come after you no matter what country you are a citizen of or where you company is domiciled. It's very rare for them to try this one anyone who doesn't have US nexus since there is not much practically speaking they can do, but they could in theory. OFAC has, no pun intended, FAQs for all of this easily found at their site.
Now, this case was extra stupid. Oaktree is the single biggest PE investor in shipping, going in heavy starting a bit before the financial crash and going in really big with Eagle Bulk c. 2012 or so. Oaktree is, as stated, a US company, but that wasn't the main reason: they did this transaction in USD. Which was stupid, but having met the bastards at Empire a few times, I can say they are not the brightest bunch (as as far as I understand they are doing most of this kind of work in EUR with some shady banks nowadays anyway). Anyway any transaction in USD goes through the SWIFT system (which is why kicking Russia out of it was such a massive deal). This means there was simply no way this was not going to get eventually scanned since banks have repurposed their AML programs into sanctions programs or subscribe to sanctions-specific services like PoleStar's PupleTrac (what my company uses) or Windward or Lloyd's, etc. Now the dirty secret is that the banks don't really understand movement data that well, but Empires has done this (and Venezuela) so often for so long, someone at Treasury probably said, "OK, since we got Oaktree all up in this, let's make an example of of these guys to scare others away from these trades."
[spoiler alert: it did not scare others away from these trades and most folks estimate there are about 1,000 large tankers that form a so called "Dark Fleet" trading in Iran, Venezuela, and now Russia since both crude and product have broken the price cap at all Russian export locations. You cam make about 40% more shipping such cargos than legal ones.]
Anyway, I digress, The the point is that OFAC doesn't care if you have US nexus; it just makes you easier to catch if you do. Source: I am the head of credit and compliance for a large oil company that works closely with the shipping industry.
Now I'm curious to know how a head of compliance for a oil company found their way to kbin.social.
Eh, for one we are hyper specialized oil company so not quite as evil as your run of the mill ones. We sell fuel to ships, so unless everyone suddenly agrees they don't need the 90% of the world's commodities and manufactured goods anymore, you gotta use ships. And in a moderate defense, ships by far the least polluting way to transport stuff by ton/mile.
Me personally I'm a big old lefty, even here within the EU's context (where the American Democrats would be a center-right party).I just fell into this role and happened to be good at it. My function is far too niche for any green energy projects. At the core of what we do and the bit I supervise, we are basically providing short term liquidity to shipping companies, since you sell fuel on unsecured credit. Believe me I've looked (and keep looking) at green and adjacent spaces.
Oh that makes sense, thank you for the explanation!
OFAC stole a wire transfer to my landlord. I assume it's because he has a Middle Eastern-sounding name.
They provided me a case number and I mailed in the forms I found online to dispute the seizure. They sent me a letter saying that they had no record of that case. I realized the futility of fighting the government over a couple of grand and switched to depositing money orders into his account and let it go. Created a lot of extra effort (not that it was difficult, just tedious) on my end.
OFAC is a criminal organization.
No shit it's a criminal organization.
I’m sorry man but when it comes to international topics I can’t trust some faceless user on the internet for a run down of what happened.
Do you have any sources or directions you can point me in for more information about the inconsistencies in reporting?
(Just had a thought, we should have meta news agencies that analyze news agencies (including each other meta news agency))
Yeah my guy/gal non-binarny pal, I wouldn't take some Random Internet Person's word either (although I did mention where you could find it....)
End of my workday and I'm tired and maybe could have found some better examples, but here's the bit about going after foreign financial services: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-561/subpart-B
I'm having trouble finding a clear example of the extraterritoriality of US sanctions against individuals, but it's defined in nearly every EO.
So, complicit in the destruction of the planet. Good job, Sparky!
Didn't you say something about being better and not attacking people like two hours ago in this exact thread.
That is not an attack. It’s a statement of fact.
Hey fuck you, buddy! I forgot to log into my alt!
If you heat your home you are exactly as complicit as he is
This is true. But I know it. I just want to make sure he does too.
You forgot the *smugface*
I didn’t need it.
It's far more complicated than that. You need X amount of energy density to do Y amount of work, and there is certain specialized work that is only now beginning to look for replacements, although well-to-wake is tough to do.