The sanctions called for freezing "any assets the designees may have located in the United States", and prohibited U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with these individuals".

[2] Swiss authorities froze Hafez Makhlouf's account of about 3 million euros in a Geneva bank for suspected money laundering in 2011.

[13] Hafez Makhlouf reportedly bought £31 million in Moscow property through the financing network of Syrian-Russian businessman Mudalal Khoury.

[14][15] On 18 July 2012, Al Arabiya reported that Makhlouf was killed in a bombing which targeted a meeting of the Central Crisis Management Cell (CCMC) at Syria's National Security headquarters in Damascus.

Earlier in the month, Makhlouf had been removed from his powerful intelligence post in Damascus but pro-government sources said at the time that it was a "routine" move.