OFAC Sanctions 2 Companies With Ties to Russia's Wagner Group

The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned two companies for “advancing Russia’s malign activities” in the Central African Republic, including by providing “material and financial support” to Wagner Group, the sanctioned Russian private military. The designations target CAR-based Bois Rouge SARLU, also known as Wood International Group SARLU, and Russia-based Limited Liability Company Broker Expert.

OFAC said Bois Rouge is “one of many” companies in the CAR with ties to former Wagner Group owner Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who died last year in a plane explosion. After Wagner Group forces seized control of parts of the CAR in 2021, OFAC said Bois Rouge received a timber permit and was able to export tropical timber species to buyers in China, the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia.

Broker Expert, located in St. Petersburg, has a “lengthy track record of supporting Prigozhin’s exploits” in Africa and has shipped goods to companies associated with Prigozhin, OFAC said. That has included exports of “multipurpose vehicles” to Meroe Gold Co. LTD., a sanctioned company in Sudan, and shipments of helmets to Wagner Group forces in Ukraine. Prigozhin’s “enterprise” also used Broker Expert to move cash to “fund malign activities.”