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Financial institutions may have advanced knowledge of Venezuela's plans for evading impending U.S. energy-related sanctions thanks to an unlikely source, the Venezuelan government, which responded to an earlier iteration of the restrictions by converting oil revenue into cryptocurrency. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, also known as OFAC, suspended the sanctions, which would otherwise prohibit U.S. financial services companies from handling payments tied to Venezuela's oil and gas sector, in October, after President Nicolas Maduro agreed to hold elections and allow his political opponents to choose their own candidates. But OFAC disclosed plans last month to renew the...