"The Secretary of State designates Latvian official Aivars Lembergs due to his involvement in significant corruption. In addition to the designated official, the Secretary of State is designating Aivars Lembergs’s wife, Kristine Lembergs, and children Anrijs Lembergs and Liga Lembergs," said a media note from the Department of State released December 10.
"We welcome the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) actions to sanction these same corrupt actors. This whole-of-government approach sends a strong signal that the United States is committed to fighting systemic corruption and supporting the rule of law in Cambodia and Latvia," it added.
As previously reported by LSM, Lembergs was accused of widespread corruption by the U.S. government, though his decade-long trial in Latvia on similar charges marches inexorably onwards.