How long has OFAC been around?How long has OFAC been around?
The Treasury Department has a long history of dealing with sanctions. Prior to the War of 1812, Secretary of the Treasury Gallatin administered sanctions imposed against Great Britain for the harassment of American sailors. In 1861, during the Civil War, Congress passed a OFAC is the successor organization to the Office of Foreign Funds Control (the “OFFC”), which was established at the advent of World War II following the German invasion of Norway in 1940. The OFFC’s initial objective in acting under TWEA was to prevent Nazi use of occupied countries’ holdings of foreign exchange and to prevent forced repatriation of funds belonging to nationals of those countries. These controls were later extended to protect assets of other invaded countries. After the United States formally entered World War II, the OFFC became the major American program of economic warfare against the Axis powers, blocking enemy assets and prohibiting foreign trade and financial transactions. Those assets would al
