Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs), Restricted Parties and Blocked Persons

As part of its enforcement efforts, OFAC publishes a list of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of targeted countries. It also lists individuals, groups, and entities, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers designated under programs that are not country-specific. Collectively, such individuals and companies are referred to as "Specially Designated Nationals" or "SDNs." SDNs assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.

There are many lists kept by various agencies:

1. The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (Treasury);
2. The Foreign Sanctions Evaders List (Treasury);
3. The Entity List (Commerce);
4. The Denied Persons List (Commerce);
5. The Unverified List (Commerce);
6. The Nonproliferation Sanctions List (State);
7. The AECA Debarred List (State).

Sponsored Programs Administration uses Visual Compliance software, which is a comprehensive screening tool that searches through all these lists when we do a search. We screen all consortium personnel where a consortium partnership is proposed. The federal government also screens for these individuals prior to issuing an award. If someone identified on the proposal does appear on this list, we are contacted by the sponsor, verify with the participating institution the employee’s status prior to the issuance of an award and a subaward, respectively.