OFAC designates Burma defence ministry and two banks
The United States has imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s Defense Ministry and two banks that it alleges ‘facilitate much of the foreign currency exchange within Burma and enable transactions between the military regime and foreign markets, including for the purchase and import of arms and related materiel.’
The ministry was sanctioned because it ‘is responsible for the command and control of the armed forces, which has conducted decades of repressive military rule that was violently resumed following the coup in 2021,’ the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) said. ‘Since the coup, the Ministry of Defense has continued to import goods and materiel worth at least $1 billion, including from sanctioned entities in Russia. These imports have both provided revenue to Russia and provided access to military equipment that has facilitated the ongoing brutality inflicted on the people of Burma by the military.’
Also designated were the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank, both state-owned financial institutions involved in generating revenues abroad which also ‘enable Burma’s Ministry of Defense and other sanctioned military entities to purchase arms and other materials from foreign sources,’ OFAC alleged in its 21 June press release.
OFAC also issued General License 5, authorising the wind down of transactions Involving Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank or Myanma Foreign Trade Bank.
