Overview
- The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions on July 1, blocking property in U.S. jurisdiction and generally barring U.S. persons from dealing with the designated parties.
- OFAC named two Brazilian nationals, Victor Henrique de Oliveira Shimada and Stella Stefanie Nunes Henrique de Oliveira, plus three Brazilian companies and one Portuguese firm as part of an alleged network that laundered more than $30 million.
- Treasury says the scheme converted drug proceeds generated in the United States into cryptocurrency and funneled the funds back to Brazil through corporate fronts, but it did not identify specific tokens, wallets, or decentralized platforms.
- The action used Executive Order 14059 on transnational drug trafficking and Executive Order 13224 on terrorist financing and builds on prior U.S. designations of the Primeiro Comando da Capital and a Homeland Security Task Force probe that led to January arrests in Florida.
- The sanctions block U.S. access to any covered assets, expose banks and crypto platforms to losing U.S. correspondent ties if they knowingly process transactions, and prompted a Brazilian federal police operation targeting the same suspects.