Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List

The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, and international criminals (e.g. drug traffickers). The list is managed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).^[1]

The SDN list contains tens of thousands^[2] of companies, organizations, and individuals who have been identified as posing a threat to U.S. national security and foreign and economic policy.^[3] All persons and businesses within the U.S. are prohibited from doing business with blacklisted individuals or are subject to sanctions for violating the law. Financial sanctions include a ban on investment in the stock of the blacklisted individuals and companies in which the blacklisted individuals have a controlling interest, and a ban on new debt (including all securities such as bonds, credits, bills of exchange, etc.) with a maturity of more than 90 days. After the Crimean crisis, the US blacklisted a number of Russian and Crimean companies for sanctions.^[4] Almost every country is represented on the list, but China has 250 persons listed.^[5]

Sergei Lavrov, Russian diplomat is a famous person sanctioned by the SDN List.