Foreign Ministry warns banks about risks for cooperation with Lembergs

RIGA - After the US has imposed sanctions against Ventspils Mayor Aivars Lembergs, Ventspils Freeport Administration and three organizations, anyone who will perform financial transactions to this person or entity may face sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of The Treasury, the Latvian Foreign Ministry warns.

The Latvian Foreign Ministry informs that in line with the law on international and national sanctions and the regulations of the Finance and Capital Market Commission, OFAC sanctions are binding for the Latvian financial and capital market participants, including in the area of the public and private partnership and the EU funds, as well as other foreign financial assistance.

As reported, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of The Treasury on Monday imposed sanctions on a number of people and legal entities in Europe, Asia and Latin America, including on Latvia's Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs, based on the so-called Magnitsky act.

OFAC has listed four organizations that belong to or are controlled by Lembergs - Vetspils Freeport Administration, Ventspils Development Agency, Business Development Agency, and the Latvian Transport Business Association.

In connection with these designations, OFAC simultaneously issued Global Magnitsky General License No. 1, which authorizes certain transactions and activities that are ordinarily incident and necessary to the wind down of transactions involving Ventspils Freeport Administration, Ventspils Development Agency, Business Development Agency, or the Latvian Transport Business Association, or any entity in which one or more of the designated entities owns, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest, for a 30-day period.

Magnitsky Act is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.

Since 2016 the bill, which applies globally, authorizes the US government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.