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
China’s new Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law (AFSL) (中华人民共和国反外国制裁法) achieves two goals. First, it creates a menu of countersanctions available to Chinese authorities—visa restrictions, asset and transaction blocks within...more
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
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 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
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
Former US President Trump during his term of office only a week, before the release of its 13959 No. Executive Order ( "Executive Order") has been modified . The previous executive order prohibits Americans from investing in...more
China’s recently promulgated Measures to Block the Improper Extraterritorial Application of Foreign Laws and Measures (the “Measures”) has established a new framework for mitigating the impact of foreign legal measures,...more
China’s new Rules on Counteracting Unjustified Extraterritorial Application of Foreign Legislation and Other Measures (《阻断外国法律与措施不当域外适用办法》) (the “Rules”) create a new framework to mitigate the impact of foreign legal...more
With just one week remaining in his term, President Trump amended Executive Order (“EO”) 13959, which prohibits U.S. persons from investing in the securities of Chinese Military Companies (“CMCs”), to continue his aggressive...more
On December 28, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued five new frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) that clarify the scope of Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13959, the basis for OFAC’s...more
One of the widest-ranging bills of the U.S. Congress’s legislative year, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA), is nearing the finish line as both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the...more
12/15/2020
/ CAATSA ,
China ,
Export Controls ,
Hong Kong ,
NATO ,
NDAA ,
Pentagon ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
Trump Administration ,
Turkey ,
US Department of State
On December 2, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed, by unanimous vote, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (“HFCAA” or “Act”). Following enactment, foreign issuers, especially Chinese issuers, and their...more
Over the past summer, prompted by a bipartisan Congressional letter identifying a two‑decade‑old statute as an unused tool in confronting China’s strategy of “Military-Civilian Fusion,” the U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”)...more
On October 30, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) published an advisory highlighting potential sanctions risks arising from dealings in “high-value artwork” (with “particular...more
On October 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of State (“State”) broadened, yet again, the scope of sanctions applicable to Russian energy export pipeline projects, most notably the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a nearly finished...more
On Wednesday, October 14, 2020, the U.S. Department of State (“State”) submitted a report to the U.S. Congress, as required under section 5(a) of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act (“HKAA”), identifying foreign persons materially...more
10/19/2020
/ China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) ,
Hong Kong ,
Hong Kong Autonomy Act (HKAA) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Treasury ,
US Department of State
On Thursday, October 8, 2020, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin identified the Iranian financial sector as subject to the sectoral sanctions of Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13902, escalating the formidable Trump...more
On Thursday, October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued an advisory highlighting potential sanctions risks associated with ransomware payments related to malicious...more
On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) reached a $894,111 settlement with Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (“Comtech”) and its subsidiary Comtech EF Data Corp. (“EF...more
Much of the world’s focus is on the COVID-19 pandemic, and rightfully so, but sanctions regulators also have their gazes fixed on another issue: the maritime industry. On May 14 2020, we saw the U.S. Departments of State and...more
8/7/2020
/ Charter ,
Coast Guard ,
Compliance ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Due Diligence ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Exports ,
Imports ,
Insurance Industry ,
Maritime Transport ,
New Guidance ,
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Ports ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sanction Violations ,
Shipping ,
U.S. Treasury ,
UK ,
Unions ,
Vessels
Given the magnitude of current events gripping the country and the world, many otherwise noteworthy governmental actions are passing largely unnoticed. One such under-the-radar action occurred on July 22, 2020, when the U.S....more