Tagged: ofac

15 May, 2025

DOJ Announces New White Collar Enforcement Strategy (Part I of III)

With each new Administration comes a new approach or emphasis on certain enforcement priorities. The Trump Administration is marking its territory and doing so to underscore its priorities. In a recent speech, the Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti for the Criminal Division announced DOJ’s new approach. To reinforce this new approach, DOJ issued a new memorandum, Focus, Fairness and Efficiency in the Fight Against...

Podcasts

9 Feb, 2025

Episode 355 — Family International and Owner Pay $1.07 Million to Resolve Russia Sanctions Violations

How do sanctioned Russian oligarchs continue to move their wealth despite international restrictions? The answer lies in real estate, shell companies, and complicit gatekeepers. In this episode of Corruption, Crime, and Compliance, Michael Volkov dives into one of the latest OFAC enforcement actions against Family International and its owner, Roman Sinyavsky, for facilitating sanctions evasion on behalf of Russian oligarchs. Through complex real estate transactions,...

General

9 Jan, 2025

OFAC Closes Out Year with String of Enforcement Actions — Aiotec Pays OFAC $14.55 Million to Resolve Iran Sanctions Violations

Despite a relatively slow year in OFAC sanctions enforcement, OFAC closed 2024 with a string of settlements in five cases, including its second in 2024 against an individual defendant. While OFAC had a slow year, DOJ continued to increase its criminal enforcement of sanctions cases against individuals, increasing its prosecutions to 70 in 2024, nearly 30 more than 2023 (42). However, in 2024, DOJ did...

General

6 Jan, 2025

OFAC Designates Gazprombank for Inclusion on SDN List

By: Daniela Melendez, Associate at The Volkov Law Group, and Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Compliance Manager. Daniela can be reached at dmelendez@volkovlaw.com and Alex can be reached out at acotoia@volkovlaw.com. In a significant development underscoring the U.S. government’s continued efforts to counter Russia’s destabilizing activities, the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently announced the designation of Gazprombank as a Specially Designated National (“SDN”) under Executive Order 14024. This action,...

General

4 Dec, 2024

OFAC Fines U.S. Person $1 Million for Multiple Violations of Sanctions Regime Against Iran

In one of the more notable enforcement actions of 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) recently imposed a $1,104,408 civil penalty on a U.S. person for 75 separate violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“ITSR”). The underlying violations, which occurred from 2019 to 2022, involved the purchase, renovation, and operation of a hotel on the Caspian...

General

3 Dec, 2024

American Life Insurance Company Settles with OFAC for $178,421 Related to Apparent Violations of Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations

By: Daniela Melendez, Associate at The Volkov Law Group, and Alex Cotoia, Regulatory Compliance Manager. Daniela can be reached at dmelendez@volkovlaw.com and Alex can be reached out at acotoia@volkovlaw.com. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) recently settled with American Life Insurance Company (“ALICO”), a Delaware-based subsidiary of MetLife, Inc., for $178,421, addressing apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“ITSR”)....

Podcasts

6 Oct, 2024

Episode 339 — The Four Sanctions Cases that Everyone Should Know

The Justice Department has repeated on several occasions that it intends to aggressively prosecute corporations for sanctions and export controls violations. The “New FCPA” is how the Justice Department characterizes its plan. To execute the strategy, DOJ has assigned 25 new prosecutors. This is the most important fact — unleashing 25 new prosecutors with the goal of bringing criminal cases against corporations and individuals will...

General

26 Sep, 2024

OFAC’s Stated Concern About Foreign Companies and Domestic Sanctions Compliance and Post-Acquisition Compliance (Party IV of IV)

Foreign companies with U.S. operations are struggling to navigate the landscape of sanctions compliance. OFAC has expressed its concern that foreign companies need to deploy U.S. based expertise and resources to ensure compliance with sanctions. OFAC’s concern was expressed in the context of its settlement with Murad LLC, a U.S. cosmetics company. Over an eight-year period ending in 2018, Murad illegally exported goods and services...

General

25 Sep, 2024

“The New FCPA”: The Future Landscape of Sanctions Enforcement (Part II of IV)

“This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, a lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder’s head.” — The Big Lebowski We are all familiar with — over and over — third-party risks and FCPA risks. It is drilled in our collective heads — third-party risks and...

General

14 Aug, 2024

Quarterly Trade Compliance Update – July 2024

Each quarter, we send many of our clients a quarterly trade compliance update, highlighting important developments over the last few months and summarizing key points for important sanctions programs. Click here to download the quarterly update for July. Below is a summary of events this past quarter: About the document: This handy one-pager is designed to be used by our clients to provide a quick...