The United States Department of the Treasury on April 16 sanctioned Maurice and Daniel Edmundo Ortega Murillo, sons of Nicaragua’s ruling couple, according to an official statement. Maurice oversees the regime’s sports apparatus, while Daniel Edmundo is in charge of propaganda under the direct command of his mother, Rosario Murillo.
“The dictatorship has turned the state into a family instrument and further concentrated power in the couple. Not only does Murillo wield more power now, but so do her adult children, including Laureano Ortega Murillo, who have been appointed to key government posts. OFAC sanctioned Laureano on April 17, 2019,” the U.S. statement said.
Sanctions announced two days before anniversary of 2018 protests
The sanctions were announced two days before the eighth anniversary of the civic uprising that was brutally repressed by the state. The measures reach the ruling inner circle as well as the opaque business network built to control and profit from the gold trade.
The Trump administration’s actions also target Grupo Minero Xiloá (Grumixsa), the axis of the family’s gold operations, whose existence was revealed by investigations by La Prensa. U.S. authorities further held the state responsible for the seizure of BHMB Mining, an American business, whose facilities in northern Nicaragua were arbitrarily taken over in 2025 and handed to Chinese firms Santa Rita Mining and Zhong Fu Development.
BHMB Mining is seeking $80 million in damages from the regime at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
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An extortion scheme
The sanctions on the Ortega-Murillo gold business are tied to an alleged scheme to extort small-scale miners and established companies. In that context, the United States sanctioned Grumixsa, which was recently shut down on orders from Rosario Murillo in an apparent attempt to erase evidence of the family’s involvement.
Grumixsa’s majority shareholder is Urbanizadora Industrial (URBISA), part of a network of 22 companies linked to the Ortega-Murillo family, according to a 2022 investigation by news outlet Confidencial. The mining group operated out of former offices of the state-owned Nicaraguan Mining Company, which was also sanctioned by Washington in 2022.
U.S. officials say revenue generated at a gold processing plant in Villanueva, Chinandega, helped finance repression. Nicaragua’s Attorney General’s Office recently authorized the transfer of that facility to another company, Los Ángeles, S.A., owned by James Randy Martin.
Sources cited by La Prensa said the ruling family sold Grumixsa in February, following the newspaper’s reporting and sustained U.S. pressure on Nicaragua’s mining sector.
The ruling family controls key posts
“The Murillo-Ortega dictatorship has placed family members in key positions to maintain control over crucial sectors of Nicaragua’s economy. Since 2020, it has restructured the mining sector into a complex network of companies and front men designed to generate foreign currency, launder sanctioned assets, and reinforce political control for its own benefit,” the Treasury Department said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also criticized the regime on X: “The Murillo-Ortega dictatorship has sought to fill its coffers through these gold companies and co-conspirators, confiscating U.S. investments in Nicaragua and using them to generate funds to maintain political power. The United States will not allow the unlawful seizure of U.S.-owned assets and will continue to target revenue streams that bolster the corrupt regime.”
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Role of Laureano Ortega and minister Salvador Mansell
U.S. officials added that “this corrupt, government-controlled scheme is managed by two individuals already sanctioned by the United States: Laureano Ortega Murillo and Salvador Mansell Castrillo, Nicaragua’s minister of energy and mines.”
The gold industry has undergone significant restructuring in recent years. Beyond family interests, the Ortega-Murillo government has granted concessions covering 8.5% of the national territory to 15 little-known Chinese mining companies, according to a recent study by Fundación del Río.
Vice minister Santiago Bermúdez sanctioned
The statement noted that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five individuals and seven companies involved in the gold sector, including Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Santiago Bermúdez Tapia.
According to U.S. authorities, senior Nicaraguan officials have benefited from a surge in gold exports, which reached $1.961 billion in 2025. A key player has been the state-owned Nicaraguan Mining Company, sanctioned in 2022, which “channels benefits to private-sector partners and pays bribes to individuals close to the regime,” while deciding which companies exploit gold and mineral reserves.
Five companies held responsible
The companies named are Exportadora de Metales S.A. (EMSA), Grupo Minero Xiloá (Grumixsa), Thomas Metal, Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Minería Group S.A., and Brother Metal.
According to the statement, EMSA, based in Managua, sells bulk gold to the United States and is one of several firms set up by the regime to generate revenue “for government use.”
“EMSA has collected unrefined gold from six different locations in Nicaragua to smelt at its Managua headquarters. Proceeds from gold sales were electronically transferred to a bank account in Managua, which may have been used to equip, train, and pay the salaries of government-aligned paramilitary groups,” the statement added.
Grumixsa used to channel funds for repression
Grumixsa, the statement says, purchases artisanal gold in cash, processes it, and exports it through a network of allied Nicaraguan firms, “using the U.S. financial system to legitimize illicit funds.”
“These resources are then used to finance the regime’s repressive operations and sustain the political machinery that ensures its grip on power. Several former officials from entities sanctioned by the United States, such as ENIMINAS, the Caja Rural Nacional cooperative (Caruna), and Alba de Nicaragua (Albanisa), are now active in the mining sector,” Washington said.
The Treasury also identified Thomas Metal and Brother Metal as beneficiaries of mining concessions. In the case of Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Minería Group, officials noted it shipped more than $25 million in Nicaraguan gold to the United States in early to mid-2025, corroborating reporting by La Prensa.
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BHMB Mining confiscation
The U.S. government detailed the takeover of BHMB Mining’s facilities, naming Feiwu Bian, president and legal representative of Zhong Fu, and his lawyer Vladimir Matus Buitrago among those involved; both were sanctioned, along with their companies.
Also sanctioned were Nelson Francisco Sobalvarro, representative of Compañía Minera Internacional (Comintsa), and attorney Lester Matus Tamariz, who facilitated concessions to Zhong Fu. U.S. officials described the vice minister, Sobalvarro, and Matus as “the enablers backing the illicit gold scheme.”
The decision drew reactions in the United States. Republican Congressman Carlos Giménez described the Ortega-Murillo government as “a cancer in our hemisphere” in a post on X.
“The Murillo-Ortega dictatorship is a cancer in our hemisphere that survives through corruption and the theft of U.S. property. I commend the Treasury Department and Secretary Scott Bessent for targeting the gold sector, a primary piggy bank for this regime. We must keep cutting off every financial lifeline until freedom is restored for the people of Nicaragua,” Giménez said.
