This alert considers the recent updates and guidance published by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) regarding the UK’s National Security and Investment Act 2021 (the “Act”).
These...more
On July 26, 2021, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) released its unclassified Annual Report to Congress for the 2020 calendar year. The Annual Report provides statistics and insights into the...more
As peak summer holiday season approaches, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) continues to remind the private sector of the importance of strict economic sanctions compliance. OFAC...more
7/15/2021
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Currency ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
ITSR ,
Moneygram ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
U.S. Treasury
On June 3, 2021, President Biden issued a new executive order (E.O.), “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Certain Companies of the People’s Republic of China” (E.O. 14032). The E.O. prohibits U.S....more
Last week’s release of advisory opinions related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) – the first such opinions from the new Chief of the Department of Justice’s FARA Unit (the “Unit”) – signal that the Unit will...more
5/28/2021
/ Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Domestic Policy ,
Entity List ,
Exemptions ,
Foreign Agents ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Foreign Corporations ,
Foreign Governments ,
Material Dissemination ,
Promotional Items ,
Public Relations ,
U.S. Commerce Department
In late April 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules that require on-air programming sponsored or furnished by a foreign government to contain a disclosure statement noting the foreign government...more
The legal and political skirmishing continued on both sides of the Atlantic in recent weeks over Nord Stream 2, the nearly finished Russian natural gas pipeline that continues to serve as a flash point within Europe and...more
On April 29, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts (collectively, “DOJ”) announced that DOJ entered into a precedent-setting...more
On April 8, 2021, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), and the Committee’s ranking member, Jim Risch (R-Idaho), introduced the Strategic Competition Act of 2021 (the “Act”...more
On April 15, 2021, following discussions just days earlier of a potential summit between President Biden and Russian President Putin and as Russian troops amassed along the Ukrainian border, the Biden Administration issued...more
4/20/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Blocked Person ,
CBW Act ,
Cybersecurity ,
Defense Sector ,
Espionage ,
Executive Orders ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Interference in US Elections ,
Foreign Policy ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
SolarWinds ,
Sovereign Debt ,
State-Owned Enterprises ,
Technology Contracts ,
Technology Sector ,
Ukraine ,
Vladimir Putin
On March 22, 2021, the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) interim final rule to implement provisions of Executive Order 13873 on Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) Supply Chain became...more
4/2/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
CFIUS ,
China ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Electronic Communications ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Foreign Investment ,
Imports ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Internet ,
Market-Sharing ,
NDAA ,
Networks ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Software ,
Supply Chain ,
Technology Sector ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department
On March 12, 2021, a U.S. district court granted a temporary injunction requested by the Hong Kong-listed, Chinese electronics giant, Xiaomi Corporation (“Xiaomi”). The injunction blocks the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”)...more
3/22/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Executive Orders ,
Hong Kong ,
Injunctions ,
NDAA ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
Technology Sector ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Treasury
As we previously wrote in our OFAC 2020 Year in Review, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) saw a drop in enforcement activity in 2020, likely due to the massive year it had in 2019 and...more
2/18/2021
/ Audits ,
Citizenship ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Subsidiaries ,
Information Technology ,
Licenses ,
Nexus ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Remediation ,
Sanctions
In too many ways to count, 2020 was an extraordinary year. As we move into 2021 with optimism for an end to the pandemic and better days ahead, we understand that the activity last year of the U.S. Department of the...more
2/16/2021
/ China ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Exports ,
Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Maritime Transport ,
NDAA ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Penalties ,
Pentagon ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Trump Administration
On February 11, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14014 of February 10, 2021, “Blocking Property With Respect to the Situation in Burma” (“E.O. 14014”), the first sanctions-related E.O. of his new administration,...more