The U.S. Treasury Department has rejected Senator Nathaniel McGill’s bid to lift Global Magnitsky sanctions, finding that his election to Liberia’s Senate returned him to a position of public trust, from which he could engage in and benefit from corruption, and that he failed to produce the promised records regarding his business interests.
“Furthermore, as your client is now a senator of Liberia, he is again a government official and remains in a position of public trust from which he could engage in and benefit from public corruption,” Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control wrote in an April 11, 2025 letter.
The letter denied McGill’s request to be removed from OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, where he has remained since the United States sanctioned him in August 2022 for corruption allegations.
The determination, filed under case ID GLOMAG-28717, bears the digital signature of acting OFAC Director Lisa M. Palluconi. It was addressed to Tyler Cullis, the Washington-based sanctions lawyer who filed the request on McGill’s behalf through Ferrari & Associates.
Beyond his return to public office, OFAC said McGill failed to submit the business records he had promised, made a claim about the limits of his government authority that appeared to conflict with his resignation letter, and offered arguments that did not address the original basis for his designation.
Senate Seat Undercuts Central Argument
McGill sought removal by arguing that the circumstances leading to his designation had changed because he had resigned as minister of state for presidential affairs and chief of staff to then-President George Weah.
OFAC rejected that argument on two grounds.
First, the designation applied to McGill as a “current or former government official,” meaning that leaving his executive-branch position did not remove him from the category under which he was sanctioned.
Second, his subsequent election to the Liberian Senate returned him to public office.
“Your client’s resignation from his former position does not indicate the circumstances resulting in his designation no longer apply,” OFAC wrote.
Under Treasury’s delisting process, a sanctioned person may seek removal by showing that there was an insufficient basis for the original designation or that the circumstances supporting it no longer apply.
OFAC concluded that McGill had established neither.
Promised Business Records Never Arrived
The agency also faulted McGill for failing to provide records concerning companies in which he holds ownership interests.
In a response dated Aug. 15, 2023, to an OFAC questionnaire issued on June 20, 2023, McGill said no company he owned had received Liberian government contracts during his tenure.
He told the agency that supporting information was being assembled and would be submitted when finalized.
“As of today, OFAC has not received the information requested,” the April 2025 determination said, nearly 20 months after McGill’s response.
The missing records were significant because Treasury’s original designation alleged that McGill manipulated public procurement processes to award multimillion-dollar contracts to companies in which he held ownership
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