The Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that it was adding five people to the list of those sanctioned under the Sergei Magnitsky Act, the 2012 bill that has earned the ire of Russian President Vladimir Putin.



The new additions bring the total number of those sanctioned by the law to 49. The law, named for a Russian whistleblower who died in pre-trial detention, prohibits transactions between sanctioned individuals and Americans.

"Treasury remains committed to holding accountable those involved in the Sergei Magnitsky affair, including those with a role in the criminal conspiracy and fraud scheme that he uncovered," said John Smith, the director of the Treasury Department's office of foreign assets control.

"We will continue to use the Magnitsky Act to aggressively target gross violators of human rights in Russia, including individuals responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, and other despicable acts."

The five people added to the sanctions list include Alexei Sheshenya, Yulia Mayorova, Andrei Pavlov, Ramzan Kadyrov and Ayub Kataev.

Sheshenya, Mayorova, and Pavlov were involved in the large-scale tax fraud scheme uncovered by Magnitsky, according to the Treasury Department. Kadyrov and Kataev are responsible for "gross violations of internationally recognized human rights," the department said.