OFAC designated Paraguayan tobacco company Tabacalera del Este S.A. (Tabesa) August 6,2024, for providing financial support to Paraguay’s former president, Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara (Cartes), who OFAC sanctioned on January 26, 2023 for his involvement in corruption.
Tabesa is being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world.
OFAC previously identified Tabesa on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List as an entity in which Cartes owned, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest.
While Cartes no longer owns Tabesa following a sales agreement to acquire Cartes’s shares in the company, Tabesa has made—and plans to continue making—payments worth millions of dollars to Cartes, despite Cartes’s designation by OFAC.
Tabesa is being designated for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of Cartes, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13818. Note that licensed activities related to Tabesa pursuant to General License 7 under the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations continue to be authorized.
In March 2023, OFAC issued a license permitting thesanctioned Paraguayan tobacco company to continue its remittances under the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
General License No. 7, issued under Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations 31 CFR part 583
Authorizing Certain Transactions Involving Tabacalera del Este S.A. or Tabacos USA Inc. Pursuant to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
Transactions that are ordinarily incident and necessary to payments under the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), entered into on November 23, 1998 between certain U.S. state and territory attorneys general and certain tobacco companies, are authorized.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here