August 3, 2006
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is under new leadership. On August 1, 2006, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson named Adam Szubin as the new Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC. As the head of OFAC, Mr. Szubin will be responsible for administering and enforcing United States Government economic sanctions programs. These programs target supporters of terrorist activities, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation, narcotics trafficking, certain foreign countries and regimes, and other economic and national security threats.
Mr. Szubin previously served as the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Treasury Department. In this role, he helped develop and coordinate programs on terrorist financing, money laundering, economic sanctions, WMD proliferation and intelligence analysis. Mr. Szubin also chaired the Money Laundering Threat Assessment Working Group, which produced the first government-wide analysis of U.S. money laundering vulnerabilities.
Before his work at Treasury, Mr. Szubin served in the Department of Justice as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General. Earlier, he also worked as a trial attorney in the Justice Department Civil Division as part of the Terrorism Litigation Task Force.
Szubin replaces Robert Werner as OFAC Director. Barbara Hammerle had served as Acting OFAC Director since Werner’s departure earlier this year.
© 2006 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
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