OFAC can punish, expose non-U.S. persons providing “material support”, doing business with sanctioned individuals

Last Updated on Sunday, 17 August 2025, 21:52 by Writer

The United States (U.S.) Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has informed lawyers for sanctioned Guyanese businessmen Nazar “Shell” Mohamed and his son, presidential aspirant Azruddin Mohamed that non-Americans could be sanctioned for doing business with sanctioned persons.

“Unless exempt or otherwise authorized by a general or specific license from OFAC, transactions with sanctioned persons by U.S. persons are generally prohibited, and non-U.S. persons could also face sanctions risk for certain activities involving sanctioned persons, such as providing material support to them,” OFAC’s Compliance Hotline said in response to a query from a law firm representing the Mohameds.

Legally, a person is an individual or entity. A U.S. permanent resident, also known as a green card holder, is also considered a U.S. person.

President Trump’s Executive Order 13818, blocking the property of persons involved in serious human rights abuse or corruption, prohibits material support – broadly encompassing “any property, tangible or intangible, or service” except medicine and religious materials but includes currency, monetary instruments, financial securities, financial services, lodging, training – instruction or teaching designed to impart a specific skill – and expert advice or assistance derived from scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge, among others.

Nazar and Azruddin Mohamed were sanctioned by OFAC in June 2024 for allegedly evading more than US$50 million in taxes on the export of more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold between 2019 and 2023. They have not been charged locally for any offence though the Guyana government, at its request, obtained information from the U.S. earlier this year.

OFAC told the Mohameds legal representative that implications would depend on whether the sanctioned individual is involved in a transaction with a political party, led by an OFAC-sanctioned individual or with members of such a political party.

OFAC also said that for example, U.S. financial institutions would not violate sanctions for maintaining the account of or processing a transaction involving a non-sanctioned organization or non-sanctioned members of that organization solely because another member of that organization is sanctioned. However, U.S. financial institutions would be prohibited from engaging in such transactions if the sanctioned individual has an interest in the accounts or transactions, OFAC said.

Those were in response to enquiries by the Mohameds lawyers after Demerara Bank closed the accounts of several persons who are associated with the Azruddin Mohamed-led We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) political party. Demerara Bank had cited the need to obey international compliance legislation and protocol dealing with an individual who was sanctioned. “Anybody, who has a relationship that poses a compliance risk with the bank, we have an obligation under the AML (Anti-Money Laundering) legislation to take action and de-risk and that comes with international correspondent bank guidelines,” Demerara Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Dowlat Parbhu had told Demerara Waves Online News in July, 2025.

The Mohameds, through their lawyers, had asked OFAC to confirm that the prohibitions of President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13818 do not extend to non-U.S. persons or entities such as the bank, and the non-designated affiliates of WIN.

Further, they had asked the OFAC to confirm that U.S. sanctions do not prohibit non-U.S. financial institutions from engaging in transactions with Mr. Mohamed, absent a U.S. nexus, such as a U.S. person’s involvement or the use of the U.S. financial system.