WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating two individuals and five entities that profit through money laundering and importing petroleum products into territory controlled by Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis. The Iran-backed Houthis gain hundreds of millions of dollars annually by working with Yemeni businessmen to tax petroleum imports, generating critical revenue that funds the Houthis’ destabilizing activities in the region.
Today’s action targets a network of individuals and their companies located across Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who are among the most significant importers of petroleum products and money launderers that benefit the Houthis.
“The Houthis collaborate with opportunistic businessmen to reap enormous profits from the importation of petroleum products and to enable the group’s access to the international financial system,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender. “These networks of shady businesses underpin the Houthis’ terrorist machine, and Treasury will use all tools at its disposal to disrupt these schemes.”
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to the counterterrorism authority Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, and builds on a series of OFAC actions targeting Houthi revenue generation and weapons procurement over the past year, including on June 17, 2024, July 31, 2024, October 2, 2024, December 19, 2024, March 5, 2025, April 2, 2025, April 28, 2025, and June 20, 2025. The U.S. Department of State designated Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) on February 16, 2024, and subsequently re-designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on March 5, 2025.
HOUTHI PETROLEUM AND FUEL COMPANIES
The Houthis work with privately owned companies to ensure continued shipments of petroleum products into areas they control in Yemen. Once in Yemen, the Houthis profit even further by controlling the selling price of these petroleum products to the Yemeni people, typically at a significant markup.
Muhammad Al-Sunaydar (Al-Sunaydar), who manages a network of petroleum companies between Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, is one of the most prominent petroleum importers in Yemen. Al-Sunaydar manages Arkan Mars Petroleum Company for Oil Products Imports (Arkan Mars), which has an agreement with the Houthis to import gas and oil, including Iranian petroleum products, for the terrorist group through the Houthi-controlled Hudaydah and Ras Isa ports in Yemen. As of June 2025, Iranian-affiliated companies were involved in facilitating payments between the Iranian government and Houthi-affiliated oil companies, including Arkan Mars.
As a part of Al-Sunaydar’s network, Arkan Mars Petroleum DMCC and Arkan Mars Petroleum FZE are UAE-based companies associated with Arkan Mars that have been involved in exporting oil to Yemen. All three of the Arkan Mars companies coordinated the delivery of approximately $12 million dollars’ worth of Iranian petroleum products with the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Company (PGPICC) to the Houthis via Ras Isa port in Yemen. PGPICC was designated by OFAC pursuant to E.O. 13382 for being owned or controlled by Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Co. (PGPIC). PGPIC was itself designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 that same day for having provided financial support to Khatam al-Anbiya, the engineering conglomerate of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Yahya Mohammed Al Wazir launders and raises money for the Houthis. Between November and December 2024, Al-Saida Stone for Trading and Agencies (Al-Saida) spent approximately six million euros across five payments to purchase bulk coal, presumably to import into Yemen. Al-Saida’s public advertisement of itself as a stationery wholesaler in Sana’a, Yemen is at odds with repeated large volume payments for coal and is typical of the behaviors of a front company.
Amran Cement Factory is a Houthi-controlled entity that has been providing the terrorist group with money laundering and earning capabilities. In addition, as of March 2025, the Houthis have directed production of cement from Amran Cement Factory to the mountainous Saada region in northern Yemen as part of a larger Houthi effort to develop and fortify military, weapons storage, and ammunitions caches.
Muhammad Al-Sunaydar, Arkan Mars Petroleum Company for Oil Products Imports, Arkan Mars Petroleum DMCC, Arkan Mars Petroleum FZE, Yahya Mohammed Al Wazir, Al-Saida Stone for Trading and Agencies, and Amran Cement Factory are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, the Houthis.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.
Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons. OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions. In addition, financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities involving designated or otherwise blocked persons. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions involving the persons designated today may risk the imposition of secondary sanctions on participating foreign financial institutions. OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on opening or maintaining, in the United States, a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducts or facilitates any significant transaction on behalf of a person who is designated pursuant to the relevant authority.
The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC’s ability to designate and add persons to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, or to submit a request, please refer to OFAC’s guidance on Filing a Petition for Removal from an OFAC List.
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