OFAC Nukes MOOCS
I missed this earlier, but back at the end of January, Coursera, a provider of the euphoniously acronymed MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) said “No MOOCS for you” to residents of Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan who wanted to better…
Clif Burns
Abra-OFAC-A-Dabra: Now You See Them, Now You Don’t
ABOVE: Associated Shipbroking HQ Monaco-based Associated Shipbroking was, earlier this week, quietly removed from the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, fondly known simply as the SDN List. As is normally the case…
Zealous Screening Software Nabs Random Characters
A reader and colleague sent me an email with a great story (and the wire documents to back it up) about OFAC screening software gone bad. At issue was a relatively small wire transfer that was blocked because the SWIFT…
OFAC Expands License for Personal Communications Items to Iran
Last week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License D-1 relating to provision of personal communications software, services and hardware to Iran. This general license amends and replaces, as of February 7, 2014, General License D on the…
OFAC Filches Professor’s Good Name
Stephen Law is a distinguished scholar, a philosopher and a senior lecturer at Heythrop College, University of London. Steven Law, on the other hand, is a Burmese man, also known as Tun Myint Naing, who helps to run his father’s…