Serbia

1972-10-02

Serbia

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned an individual in Serbia pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14033. The designation of Aleksandar Vulin (Vulin) underscores the United States’ determination to hold accountable those engaged in corrupt dealings that further their own political agendas and personal interests at the expense of peace and stability in the Western Balkans. These corrupt dealings facilitate Russian malign activities in Serbia and the region. Aleksandar Vulin (Vulin) has been implicated in transnational organized crime, illegal narcotics operations, and misuse of public office. Vulin has maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with U.S.-designated Serbian arms dealer Slobodan Tesic, helping ensure that Tesic’s illegal arms shipments can move freely across Serbia’s borders. Vulin’s acts have advanced corruption within Serbia’s governing institutions. These acts include leveraging his authority for personal gain, including involvement in a drug trafficking ring. He has used his public positions to support Russia, facilitating Russia’s malign activities that degrade the security and stability of the Western Balkans and providing Russia a platform to further its influence in the region. Vulin is the Director of Serbia’s Security Information Agency, and previously served as Minister of Defense and Minister of the Interior. These institutions are not the targets of these sanctions. OFAC is designating Vulin pursuant to E.O. 14033 for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption related to the Western Balkans, including corruption by, on behalf of, or otherwise related to a government in the Western Balkans, or a current or former government official at any level of government in the Western Balkans, such as the misappropriation of public assets, expropriation of private assets for personal gain or political purposes, or bribery.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1606

2023-07-11

US

Executive Order 14033 Blocking Property and Suspending Entry into the United States of Certain Persons Contributing to the Destabilizing Situation in the Western Balkans

OFAC country specific

Western Balkans

Blocking Property, Suspending Entry

On June 8, 2021, pursuant to, inter alia, IEEPA, the President issued E.O. 14033. In E.O. 14033, the President expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13219, as amended in E.O. 13304, finding that the situation in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Albania (the Western Balkans), over the past two decades, including the undermining of post-war agreements and institutions following the breakup of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as widespread corruption within various governments and institutions in the Western Balkans, stymies progress toward effective and democratic governance and full integration into transatlantic institutions, and thereby constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

SDN