On Donald Trump’s last day of office, the former president accidentally slapped sanctions on a small Italian restaurant and a graphic design studio before he left office, The Guardian reported.
The mishap happened after Trump ordered that sanctions be imposed on a network of Venezuelan oil firms and individuals associated with the state oil industry. However, two Italian business owners who shared the same name as a man involved in the Venezuelan oil trade had their businesses sanctioned instead.
Alessandro Bazzoni, the owner of a pizzeria in the Italian city of Verona, discovered that his business was placed on a US trade blacklist after visiting his local bank, The Guardian reported.
“When I heard that my current accounts had been blocked, I thought it was a joke,” Bazzoni told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “These are already difficult times for us restaurant owners, the last thing I needed was to have my accounts blocked.”
Bazzoni told the newspaper that he has not received an apology. However, he thanked the Biden administration for correcting the mistake and removing his name from the sanctions list. “I thank the new American government for the efficiency with which it intervened,” Bazzoni told Corriere della Sera.
Another Italian man, who is also called Alessandro Bazzoni, had his business targeted too. The Trump administration also blacklisted his company, SeriGraphicLab, according to The Guardian.
The Sardinian business owner, who declined to offer comment, confirmed with the paper that his graphic design studio had been on a sanctions list.
As noted by The Guardian, the unfortunate case of mistaken identity was Trump’s final blunder of his chaotic administration.
On March 31, the Treasury updated the “specially designated nationalist list” and removed those who were affected by the mix-up, according to the report.
