Antal Rogán removed from US Department of Treasury sanctions list

The name of Antal Rogán is no longer on the US Department of Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, where he was placed in early January. The Minister of the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office was officially removed from the list of sanctioned individuals on Tuesday evening. The US Treasury Department issued an official statement to this effect, but no reason was given for the decision.

After the announcement, we wrote to the US Treasury Department to find out why the Hungarian minister was added to the list as well as the reasons for his removal. Later that evening, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce issued a statement saying:

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke today with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. The Secretary informed Foreign Minister Szijjarto of senior Hungarian official Antal Rogán’s removal from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, noting that continued designation was inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy interests. Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Szijjarto also discussed ways to strengthen U.S.-Hungary alignment on critical issues and opportunities for economic cooperation.”

Shortly after the official US announcement, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced on Facebook that the US Treasury Department had removed Antal Rogán from its sanctions list, adding that this clearly proves that the winds have shifted in Washington.

According to Szijjártó, there were several measures taken against Hungary by the previous US administration "out of absolute revenge". "One of these was placing my colleague, Minister Antal Rogán on the list of sanctioned individuals, which was obviously the political revenge of an ambassador who left Budapest frustrated," he said. "The fact that the winds have shifted in Washington is clearly demonstrated by the fact that a few minutes ago the US Treasury Department announced that Antal Rogán had been removed from its sanctions list," he wrote. During the day on Tuesday, Szijjártó also posted about having spoken on the phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rogán didn't know why he was put on the list

Speaking in Parliament on 24 March, Antal Rogán said he didn't know why he had been put on the list. Olga Kálmán, a member of Demokratikus Koalíció (Democratic Coalition, DK) asked the minister to explain to the public why he was on the same list as criminals, war criminals and terrorists. “Be brave, look people in the eye and tell us what crimes you have committed and whether you have any hidden assets in America.”

“I myself am also waiting for the answer to that question.”

– the Minister replied at the time, speaking in Parliament for the first time in quite a while.

Previously, we wrote in detail about what may have led to Rogán's sanctioning, analysed the political context of the case and looked at how long it could take for him to be removed from the list. Speaking at the government's press briefing on 23 January, Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the Prime Minister's Office, said that Rogán could be removed from the list "in the foreseeable future, within this year".

The SDN List (Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List) is an official sanctions list maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the US Treasury Department. It lists individuals, companies and entities that have been placed under financial and economic sanctions by the US government for various reasons. It is prohibited to do business in the United States with those on the list. OFAC regularly updates the list in accordance with international sanctions and political situations.