Treasury strikes front companies for Syria with sanctions

The Department of the Treasury said Monday that it was trying to put the clamps on companies and people providing energy products to the Syrian regime.

The department sanctioned seven companies and four people in all for aiding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Most of those groups or people, the department said, were front companies that the Syrian regime and its supporters have leaned on to avoid U.S. and European Union sanctions.

{mosads}“Treasury will continue to employ its robust financial tools to weaken Assad’s support network,” Adam Szubin, the department’s acting under secretary dealing with terrorism issues, said in a statement. 

“These targeted sanctions intensify the economic and financial pressure on the Syrian government to cease its campaign of violence against its people.”

The sanctions levied by Treasury freeze any assets those companies or people have in the U.S., and generally bar Americans from making business deals with them.

The companies sanctioned include Milenyum Energy, registered in Panama and operating in Turkey; Blue Energy, registered in St. Kitts and Nevis; and Ebla Trade Services, a Beirut-based company.