US imposes sanctions Nicaragua government officials, others for alleged seizure of US property

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions against five people and seven companies that operate in Nicaragua’s gold sector, including two sons of the country's co-presidents, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

Another of the individuals is Santiago Hernan Bermudez Tapia, Nicaragua's vice minister of energy and mines, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in the statement. The Nicaraguan entities were ones that had assumed gold concessions previously held by the sanctioned parties.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Nicaraguan government, led by Rosaria Murillo and Daniel Ortega, had sought to fill its own coffers by "confiscating American investments" in the country.

“The United States will not allow the illicit confiscation of American-owned assets and will continue to target revenue streams that empower the corrupt Murillo-Ortega regime," he said.