Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three Paraguayan individuals, Kassem Mohamad Hijazi, Khalil Ahmad Hijazi, and Liz Paola Doldan Gonzalez, for their roles in corruption in Paraguay, as well as five associated entities connected with their corruption schemes. Khalil Ahmad Hijazi (Khalil) is the President—to import merchandise from the United States through ports of entry in Paraguay and sell it in country, the profits of which he then moves through currency exchange offices and banks in Ciudad del Este to the United States, China, and Hong Kong, among other locations. Khalil is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of Kassem.
OFAC is also designating the three companies registered in Paraguay that are owned or controlled by Khalil: Emprendimientos Inmobiliarios Misiones S.A., Apolo Informatica S.A., and Mundo Informatico Paraguay S.A.
On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption.
On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017.
In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.
