Russia Sanctions

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On February 18, 2020, the United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) announced a £20.47 million penalty against Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) for alleged violations of the U.K.’s Ukraine- and Russia-related sanctions. The penalty is more than 140 times larger than any of OFSI’s previous penalties. It provides a number of important lessons for…

In response to criticism that sanctions are hampering the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has released new guidance to encourage those interested in humanitarian trade involving jurisdictions sanctioned by the United States to “avail themselves of longstanding exemptions, exceptions, and authorizations” pertaining to that…

WEBINAR – REGISTER HERE

Thursday,
April 2, 2020
11:00am – 12:00pm EDT

Join us for a “couch side chat” for tips on how to effectively manage your sanctions compliance program virtually. We will also provide recent sanctions developments you might have missed while we were busy following important health news.

Tips Will Include:

  • Best practices

…

On December 31, 2019, a federal district court in Texas (the “District Court, or “Court”) overturned  a $2 million fine levied by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) against Exxon Mobil Corporation (“Exxon”) for alleged violations of the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations (“URSR”).    OFAC had assessed that Exxon received a prohibited service from a designated…

Dec.27.2019

As 2019 draws to an end, Congress has been busy on economic sanctions legislation. This includes passing new Russia-related sanctions and a Venezuela-related government contracts procurement restriction as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA 2020). The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has also approved two new pieces of…

Over the course of the last week, the United States has escalated its sanctions programs targeting Russia and Venezuela. It began by implementing the long-delayed second round of sanctions on Russia mandated by the Chemical and Biological Weapons Act of 1991 (CBW Act) on Saturday, August 3, 2019. While the CBW sanctions will have a…

On July 31, 2018, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Ukraine-/Russia-related General License 13C, which replaces and supersedes General License 13B in its entirety. 

General License 13C extends to 12:01 a.m. October 23, 2018, the “authorized period to make certain divestment and transfer activities related to debt, equity,…

Following the imposition of new U.S. sanctions on Russia in April 2018, Russian lawmakers have introduced two draft bills proposing Russian countersanctions against ‘unfriendly’ states, as well as criminalizing compliance with foreign sanctions in Russia.

The Countermeasures Bill

The first measure, the Draft Bill No. 441399-7 On Measures (Countermeasures) in Response to Unfriendly Actions of…

On June 4, 2018, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Ukraine-/Russia-related General License 16 (GL16).

General License 16 authorizes U.S. persons to engage in specified transactions related to winding down or maintaining business involving EN+ Group PLC, JSC EuroSibEnergo, or any entity in which EN+ Group PLC or JSC…

On April 1, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amended two of its pre-existing Ukraine-Russia-related General Licenses.

First, General License 12B (GL12B) replaces and supersedes General License 12A in its entirety. GL12B authorizes the listed entities to access blocked accounts for purposes of “maintenance or wind-down activities.” Previously, while GL12/GL12A…