Brussels lists 1,569 Russian arms makers as Washington fines Bank of America more than $1.21 billion

On 12 October 2026 the Council of the EU adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2281, adding 826 entities and 743 individuals from Russia's military-industrial complex to Annex I of its Ukraine regime. Every company appears on a list the Russian Government drew up of defence-industry enterprises whose staff qualify for federal housing subsidies, and every person heads one or more of them; companies carry their OGRN and INN numbers and executives their tax numbers. The same day the Council listed 77 people over the State Duma elections held in occupied Ukraine and, under its DPRK regime, three persons and four entities, including the developer Samolet Group.

On 15 October 2026 OFAC designated 16 individuals and 10 entities under E.O. 13902 as part of Operation Economic Outcast. They include Iraq's International Development Bank for Investment and Finance, which Treasury says gave Iran access to US dollars and sends profits back to Iran in dollars each month; Jazireh International Bank Company and Chabahar International Bank Overseas Company, free-zone affiliates of Bank Mellat and Bank Shahr; Dubai-based oil trustee Sayyed Ruhollah Razavi and two of his companies; seven employees of Farab Soroush Afagh Qeshm Company and Hong Kong's Elitesphere Trading; and four exchange houses and their owners. The State Department separately designated Cuba's Banco Internacional de Comercio S.A. (BICSA), which has served Iran's Karafarin Bank since at least 2022. OFAC issued General License FF to wind down dealings with the Iraqi bank.

On 13 October 2026 OFAC designated four individuals and 11 entities tied to Cartel del Noreste, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, under E.O. 14059 and, for 13 of them, also E.O. 13224. Treasury says businessman Gamaliel Garza Garcia and his son ran companies across quarter horse racing, construction, fuel and gas distribution, and that the cartel used the builder CEGESA to funnel money to the election campaigns of its preferred candidates. Club La Molienda, a racetrack outside Nuevo Laredo, is designated as cartel-controlled, and Treasury says the Tamex truck yard was the origin of at least two cocaine shipments totalling 52 kilograms hidden in trailer brake drums.

On 9 October 2026 OFAC added the International Criminal Court, headquartered in The Hague, to the SDN List under E.O. 14203, alongside a State Department announcement. To keep certain dealings lawful, OFAC issued General Licenses 13 to 16, covering certain transactions involving the Court, telecommunications and enterprise software, pension payments, and certain matters relating to ICC detainees. The same day OFAC removed one Burma-related individual from the list.

On 13 October 2026 Treasury announced what it called record enforcement actions against Bank of America, N.A. FinCEN assessed a $1.2 billion penalty; the bank admits it wilfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act and, between 2018 and mid-2025, failed to report in time more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, over $1 billion of them tied to national security and other priority risks such as Chinese money laundering networks. Treasury says the bank relied heavily on law enforcement inquiries and other institutions' requests, effectively outsourcing much of its proactive detection to third parties. The OCC imposed a $750 million civil money penalty, the largest in its history, finding the BSA/AML programme deficient and ineffective. OFAC settled 475 apparent violations across seven sanctions programmes for $11.66 million, citing slow watchlist updates, poorly calibrated alerts and payments routed through blocked banks. Treasury puts the combined total at more than $1.21 billion without itemising how the amounts are credited.

On 9 October 2026 OFAC announced a $175,015 settlement with Pegasus Worldwide Logistics, a freight forwarder handling cross-border shipments. OFAC says that between September 2023 and February 2024 the firm dealt in blocked property by facilitating the import of a machine supplied by a designated company, four apparent violations of the Illicit Drug Trafficking Sanctions Regulations, and failed for six months to respond fully to an OFAC subpoena, six apparent violations of the Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations. OFAC judged the case non-egregious and not voluntarily self-disclosed.

On 15 October 2026 FinCEN issued Alert FIN-2026-Alert008, asking financial institutions to report suspected Iranian regime exploitation of religious charity networks, including the diversion of khums, a religious levy that the alert says is collected on behalf of prominent ayatollahs with ties to the regime. It describes funds moving through hawala and cash couriers and cash structured below $10,000 to avoid currency transaction reports. Red flags include charities that solicit donations but provide no apparent charitable services, large donations from unknown sources passed quickly to other charities, and customers who receive charity transfers with no clear business link and withdraw them in cash. FinCEN stresses that legitimate charities should have access to financial services.