It's Office of Foreign Assets Control Tuesday sanctioned an affiliate of Japan's infamous Yakuza syndicate.

OFAC used a 2011 presidential executive order to impose sanctions on the Kodo-kai and its chairman Teruaki Takeuchi. OFAC declared them a significant transnational criminal organization and sought to block them from the U.S. financial system and by extension the global finance.

In a statement, the Treasury Department said Kodo-kai is a major second-tier affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi, which officials called the largest and most prominent Japanese Yakuza syndicate.

The Yakuza syndicate, made famous to U.S. gamers in Grand Theft Auto video games, operates in a fashion similar to what Americans might broadly call the mob or the mafia. Law enforcement authorities say the Yakuza and its allies have ties to organized crime in Europe and Asia, and is involved in drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States.