On April 29, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced two settlements of potential civil liability with two companies over their apparent violations of its regulations. The...more
5/7/2021
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Diligence ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Money Transfer ,
Moneygram ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Pass-Through Entities ,
SAP SE ,
SDN List ,
Settlement ,
Subsidiaries ,
Third-Party Risk ,
Voluntary Disclosure
On April 15, 2021, President Biden signed a new executive order, Blocking Property with Respect to Specified Harmful Foreign Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation, escalating US sanctions against the Russian...more
On December 28, 2020, the Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published awaited guidance on the implementation of Executive Order (EO) 13959, “Executive Order on Addressing the Threat from...more
On August 6, 2020, President Trump issued two nearly parallel executive orders (EOs) targeting the enormously popular apps TikTok and WeChat: Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok (TikTok EO), and Executive...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound economic and political effects over the past several months. Increasingly, those effects have led a number of US policymakers, US allies, and others to question certain US sanctions...more
5/5/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Economic Downturn ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Human Rights ,
Importers ,
Imports ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Medical Equipment ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Trade Relations ,
U.S. Treasury
On April 19, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order (E.O.) on “National Emergency Authority to Temporarily Extend Deadlines for Certain Estimated Payments” directing the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation...more
On March 20, 2020, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it was opening a docket to consider additional modifications to tariffs being imposed on China-origin medical-care products...more
Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) and sanctions matters continue to be a core focus of regulators, law enforcement agencies, policymakers and Congress, and the story of the Obama and Trump Administrations on...more
7/29/2019
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
BSA/AML ,
Cuba ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
Drug Trafficking ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FinCEN ,
Human Trafficking ,
Iran ,
Magnitsky Act ,
Nicaragua ,
North Korea ,
Russia ,
Sudan ,
Trump Administration ,
Venezuela ,
Virtual Currency
On March 27, 2019, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a settlement agreement with US-based Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., (Stanley Black & Decker) and its foreign subsidiary, Jiangsu Guoqiang Tools Co., Ltd....more
4/2/2019
/ Black & Decker ,
Chief Compliance Officers ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Exports ,
Foreign Subsidiaries ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Settlement ,
Subsidiaries
The past two weeks have seen two major developments in relation to the screening of foreign direct investment in the European Union (“EU”) for national security or public order reasons. First, on December 10, 2018, the EU...more
12/21/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
CFIUS ,
China ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Direct Investment ,
Foreign Investment ,
France ,
Germany ,
INTA ,
Italy ,
Member State ,
Mergers ,
National Security ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Screening Procedures ,
Trade Relations ,
Treaty of Lisbon
On November 5, 2018, the United States took steps to complete the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”), under which the United States – along with its partners in the P5+1 – had previously...more
11/9/2018
/ Blocked Entities ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Executive Orders ,
Financial Institutions ,
General Licenses ,
Iran ,
Iran Sanctions ,
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
P5+1 Nations ,
SDN List ,
Trump Administration ,
UN Security Council
On October 16, 2018, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) notified the U.S. Congress of the Administration’s intent to negotiate three separate trade agreements with the European Union (“EU”), the United...more
10/23/2018
/ Contract Negotiations ,
EU ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Japan ,
Obama Administration ,
Trade Agreements ,
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ,
Trump Administration ,
TTIP ,
UK ,
USTR
After more than a year of sometimes contentious negotiations, the United States, Mexico, and Canada (the “Parties”) reached an agreement late Sunday night to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”)—renaming...more
10/8/2018
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Automotive Industry ,
Biologics ,
Canada ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Currency Manipulation ,
Exports ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Imports ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Procurement Guidelines ,
Sunset Provisions ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Relations ,
Trans-Pacific Partnership ,
Trump Administration ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
On September 17, President Trump announced the imposition of a 10% ad valorem duty on approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Office of the U.S. Trade...more
President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order “Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran” (“New Iran E.O.”) on August 6, 2018, authorizing the re-imposition – or “snap-back” – of various sanctions against dealings...more
On August 1, 2018, the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a Federal Register notice stating that the US government had identified 44 Chinese companies as acting contrary to US national...more
On July 10, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a list of Chinese products that may become subject to an additional duty of 10% ad valorem, pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974....more
On Tuesday, May 8, President Trump announced that the United States would end its participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed by the Permanent Five Members of the Security Council plus Germany...more
On November 9, 2017, the US Departments of the Treasury and Commerce implemented President Trump's June 2017 National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) that was designed to tighten restrictions on individual travel to...more
Over the past several years, as North Korea has increased the capability of its nuclear and ballistic missile program, there has been a steady increase in sanctions pressure against North Korea by the United States and the...more