Executive Order Targets Venezuelan Gold Sector

President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order ("E.O.") authorizing the imposition of sanctions on persons who "operate corruptly" in Venezuela's gold sector "or in any other sector of the Venezuelan economy as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State."

The new sanctions authorizations are broad and are a response to actions by the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and associated persons, who are alleged to have "plunder[ed] Venezuela's wealth for their own corrupt purposes." In a set of FAQs, the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control indicatedthat it expects to use its discretion to "target in particular those who operate corruptly in the gold or other identified sectors of the Venezuela[n] economy, and not those who are operating legitimately in such sectors."