OFAC Reports On Licenses Sought And Granted During Obama/Trump November-January Transition
/27 July 2018
This letter is our final response to your February 18, 2017 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, request to the Department of the Treasury, seeking the following:
1) The total number of Cuba-related licenses issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) from November 8, 2016 to 12:00 PM on January 20, 2017; and
2) The total number of Cuba-related license applications received by OFAC from November 8, 2016 to 12:00PM on January 20, 2017.
Treasury referred your FOIA request to OFAC for processing on February 22, 2017.
OFAC is experiencing a substantial backlog of FOIA requests that has adversely affected its response time.
OFAC has searched its records and found 2,112 responsive to your request. We are releasing those 2,112 records in Excel spreadsheet format with redactions made pursuant to exemptions (b)(4) and (b)(6) of the FOIA.
OFAC used FOIA exemption (b)(4) to withhold financial information the release of which will cause substantial competitive harm to the submitter of the information and impair OFAC’s ability to obtain the information in the future. OFAC used this exemption to withhold information such as transaction information provided to OFAC.
FOIA exemption (b)(6) protects from disclosure personal privacy information, the release of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. OFAC used a balancing test to determine that the individuals’ right to personal privacy outweighed the public’s right to release of the information. In this case, OFAC withheld information such as names of individuals and their addresses.
