[4] Sometimes described as one of the "most powerful yet unknown" government agencies,[4][5] OFAC has the power to levy significant penalties against entities that defy its directives, including imposing fines, freezing assets, and barring parties from operating in the U.S. Involvement of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in economic sanctions against foreign states dates to the War of 1812, when Secretary Albert Gallatin administered sanctions against the United Kingdom in retaliation for the impressment of American sailors.

[9] The Division of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC's immediate predecessor, was established in the Office of International Finance by a Treasury Department order in December 1950, following the entry of the People's Republic of China into the Korean War;[8] President Harry S. Truman declared a national emergency and tasked the Division with blocking all Chinese and North Korean assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

[11] As part of its efforts to support the Iraq sanctions, in 2005, OFAC fined Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for gifting medicine and other humanitarian supplies to Iraqis.

[15] In the case of United States v. Banki, on June 5, 2010, a U.S. citizen was convicted of violating the Iran Trade Embargo for failing to request Iranian currency transfer licenses in advance from OFAC.

On August 25, 2010, the Iranian American Bar Association announced that it would file an amicus curiae brief with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on United States v.

[18] In 2014, OFAC reached a record $963 million settlement with the French bank BNP Paribas, which was a portion of an $8.9 billion penalty imposed in relation to the case as a whole.

The court said the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process required Treasury to give adequate notice of the reasons it puts a group on the terrorist list, as well as a meaningful opportunity to respond.

[3] On September 21, 2021, a cryptocurrency exchange was included in the sanctions list for first time for helping launder illicit funds having source from ransomware attacks.

[27] This list is maintained following the issuance of EO 13662 Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine on March 20, 2014, in accordance with 79 FR 16167.

[30][31][32] As of August 8, 2020, OFAC was administering the following sanctions programs:[33] Table note: The numbers of individuals, companies, vessels, and aircraft are taken from the SDN List.

date 13464 13350 13460 13469 In December 2024, Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached OFAC systems through cybersecurity vendor BeyondTrust, gaining access to unclassified administrative records containing potential sanctions deliberation information and future targets.