Scott Johnston

Scott Johnston advises clients on complex economic sanctions, human rights, and anti‑corruption matters informed by extensive experience at the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Scott was the Section Chief of OFAC's Human Rights and Anti‑Corruption Section, where he oversaw all investigations, sanctions designations, and petition adjudications related to various programs including Global Magnitsky, Russia Magnitsky, Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and West Bank.

Scott served in several leadership roles at OFAC, including as Acting Assistant Director, where he supervised the teams responsible for investigations related to counternarcotics, transnational criminal organizations, all Africa country programs, all Western Hemisphere country programs, human rights, and anti-corruption. In these roles, he liaised with the interagency to establish sanctions policies and goals, managed the development and execution of investigations and sanctions actions, and frequently briefed senior US government officials. Earlier, as a Sanctions Investigator, he carried out investigations on cases around the world, adjudicated delisting petitions, and built complex mitigation plans for major sanctions actions. He regularly trained and advised other US government agencies, US embassies, foreign governments, multilateral organizations, and non-profit institutions.

Prior to joining Treasury, Scott was at Human Rights First, where he practiced as Staff Attorney for Human Rights Accountability. In this role, he coordinated and led the world's largest civil society sanctions coalition, supervising the development of more than 100 sanctions recommendation dossiers that contributed to hundreds of sanctions issued by the US, UK, EU, and Canada.

Scott has presented at major international events—including the UN Business and Human Rights Forum and Oslo Freedom Forum—and has provided technical support to the UK, EU, and Canada on the development of Magnitsky‑style sanctions regimes.