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...

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...

“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...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has released a $7.45 million penalty against State Street Bank and Trust Company and its non-bank, fintech subsidiary Charles River Systems for 38 apparent violations of the Ukraine/Russia-Related Sanctions Regulations, which occurred between December 2016 and May 2020. State Street is a global financial services and bank holding company headquartered in Boston, and is...

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has released updated guidance concerning recent legislation that doubled the statute of limitations for violations of certain sanctions and export control provisions. This updated guidance provides clarity regarding time-bars for enforcement and includes additional information about OFAC’s planned extension of record-keeping requirements. On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law the 21st Century Peace...

On July 3, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it had amended entries for a multitude of entities sanctioned under the Treasury’s Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions regime. The updated designations for the entities—all of which are referenced on either OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (“SDN List”) or the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications...

In this new era of aggressive sanctions enforcement, companies have to understand the red lines that define where criminal and civil enforcement risk increase.  In contrast to the history of FCPA enforcement, DOJ and OFAC have provided helpful guidance to alert companies where risks are likely to increase. Sanctions enforcement involves an off mix of civil and criminal line drawing.  On the civil side, OFAC...

In this new era of aggressive sanctions enforcement, companies have to understand the red lines that define where criminal and civil enforcement risk increase.  In contrast to the history of FCPA enforcement, DOJ and OFAC have provided helpful guidance to alert companies where risks are likely to increase. Sanctions enforcement involves an off mix of civil and criminal line drawing.  On the civil side, OFAC...

With the beginning of the era of the “New FCPA,” as coined by DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, we now need to focus on third-party risk and sanctions enforcement.  The law, the practice and the risks are important and not just the same as FCPA legal requirements.  As we embark on a new criminal enforcement era surrounding sanctions violations, companies have to address this...