OFAC Ofac Sanctions Glossary Part 1
Core terms for OFAC itself, its sanctions programs, and the primary list it maintains.
TL;DR
TL;DR: OFAC is the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the US Treasury office that administers sanctions. Its SDN List names Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, and dealing with anyone on it is generally prohibited.
What OFAC and sanctions are
OFAC, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, is a US Treasury department that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions against targeted countries, regimes, and individuals. A sanction is a legal restriction that blocks or limits transactions with the designated target. The SDN List is OFAC's central tool: it names Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, and US persons are generally barred from dealing with them and must block property in which they have an interest.
Why it matters for agent payments
Sanctions apply to automated payments exactly as they apply to human ones. OFAC enforces strict liability, so an agent that transfers value to a listed party creates a violation regardless of intent, with civil penalties starting at $356,000 per violation. The sanctionsai.dev screening API keeps agents on the right side of these rules by checking each counterparty against live OFAC data, 19,218 SDN names and 947 listed wallets, synced hourly.
Terms covered in Part 1
- Sanctions program: a set of restrictions against a target country or group.
- SDN List: the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.
- Blocking: freezing property and barring transactions with a target.