OFAC publishes FAQ on Venezuela’s proposed digital currency

On 19 January the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) published a new FAQ on Venezuela, focusing on plans by president Nicolas Maduro to launch a digital currency. Maduro has indicated that the digital currency would carry rights to receive commodities at a later date. The FAQ clarifies that the proposed currency would ‘appear to be an extension of credit to the Venezuela government’, and so falls under a prohibition against US persons dealing in new debt with a maturity greater than 30 days.

The US, Canada and the EU have ramped up targeted sanctions on Venezuela in the past year in response to concerns over the erosion of human rights and the rule of law. OFAC’s announcement follows the designation of seven Venezuelan officials by the EU in early January 2017 and of president Maduro himself by the US in August 2016.

OFAC’s new FAQ 551 can be found here:
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Pages/faq_other.aspx#551