U.S. Treasury Sanctions 12 Kaspersky Executives Amid Software Ban

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions against a dozen individuals serving executive and senior leadership roles at Kaspersky Lab, a day after the Russian company was banned by the Commerce Department.

The move “underscores our commitment to ensure the integrity of our cyber domain and to protect our citizens against malicious cyber threats,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson, said.

“The United States will take action where necessary to hold accountable those who would seek to facilitate or otherwise enable these activities.”

The sanctions, however, do not extend to Kaspersky Lab, its parent or subsidiary companies, nor the company’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Eugene Kaspersky, OFAC noted. The 12 C-suite and senior-level executives sanctioned are listed below –

• Andrei Gennadyevich Tikhonov, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and board member
• Daniil Sergeyevich Borshchev, Deputy CEO and board member
• Andrei Anatolyevich Efremov, Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) and board member
• Igor Gennadyevich Chekunov, Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and board member
• Andrey Petrovich Dukhvalov, Vice President and Director of Future Technologies
• Andrei Anatolyevich Suvorov, Head of Kaspersky Operating System Business Unit
• Denis Vladimirovich Zenkin, Head of Corporate Communications
• Marina Mikhaylovna Alekseeva, Chief Human Resources (HR) Officer
• Mikhail Yuryevich Gerber, Executive Vice President of Consumer Business
• Anton Mikhaylovich Ivanov, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
• Kirill Aleksandrovich Astrakhan, Executive Vice President for Corporate Business
• Anna Vladimirovna Kulashova, Managing Director for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

The development follows actions by the Commerce Department prohibiting Kaspersky from providing its software and other security services in America starting July 20, 2024, citing national security concerns. The company has also been placed on the Entity List.

Russia has said the sales ban on Kaspersky software was a typical move by the U.S. to stifle foreign competition with American products. Kaspersky has maintained that it has no links to the Russian government.

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