Bradley T. Smith

On 18 May 2026 at 14:05 EDT, Smith signed General License 134C, the third successive Russia bridge licence, authorising in-transit completions for Russian-origin crude loaded on or before 17 April 2026 through 12:01 a.m. EDT on 17 June 2026. GL 134C reinstated the full vessel-services umbrella (insurance, crewing, bunkering, piloting, classification, and salvage) that had lapsed with GL 134B and reversed the read from Update 1 of this topic that Treasury had ruled out a successor. Cuba, Iran, DPRK, and occupied Ukraine remain carved out under paragraph (b)(1). The same day's OFAC action added nine Cuban officials to the SDN list, with the Cienfuegos-based official making GL 134C's Cuba exclusion operationally significant for cargoes with any Cuban touchpoint.

Bradley T. Smith has directed the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) since September 2023, having previously served as the bureau's Deputy Director and Chief Counsel. OFAC administers and enforces US sanctions across every major regime, including Russia and Ukraine, Iran, Cuba, global terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferation, and maintains the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list that blocks designated individuals and entities from the US financial system.

As Director, Smith is the final signatory on general licences, the instruments that carve narrow legal exemptions inside a sanctions regime for specified transactions. His signature therefore carries direct commercial consequences: a licence he signs or lets lapse can determine whether traders, insurers and banks may legally handle billions of dollars in restricted commerce. Because OFAC's programmes span multiple US foreign-policy fronts at once, Smith's decisions on one sanctions regime are frequently read for signals about administration intent on another.

On 7 July 2026, Smith signed General License X1, revoking the 22 June waiver (General License X) that had allowed dollar-clearing purchases of Iranian crude. GL X1 authorises only wind-down transactions, permits no new purchases, and expires 17 July. It was the first US instrument of the Iran war that Washington had actually signed, arriving the same day as CENTCOM's strikes on more than 80 Iranian targets, and it withdrew relief rather than granting it.