Office of Foreign Asset Control
The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) is a Treasury agency.
Composition
The office is overseen by the TFI.
The office is led by a director.
History
Foreign Funds Control was established by UnitedStates/FranklinDelanoRoosevelt in 1940. The agency was abolished in 1947, with activities briefly assumed by the Office of International Finance (OIF), before being transferred to the DOJ and the OAP.
A division of Foreign Assets Control was re-established in the OIF in 1950. Truman ordered sanctions against China and North Korea, to the effect of freezing assets, as a response to the Korean War.
In 1962, the division was reformed into the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
The office has broad and discretionary powers per a series of laws: especially the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 and the Patriot Act. In particular, presence on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN list) has far-reaching conseqeunces for an individual's or firm's ability to do business. It also manages sanctions lists for specific states and regions; for example, the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) relates to sanctions for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.