Venezuela Challenge to US Sanctions Escalates at WTO

By Jillian Norton and Brian Egan on Posted in Economic Sanctions, Venezuela Sanctions

Next week, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will consider Venezuela’s request for the establishment of a panel to decide whether US sanctions affecting Venezuela violate international trade law.

In December, Venezuela filed its second ever complaint at the World Trade Organization challenging US sanctions. Specifically, Venezuela claimed that the US imposed “coercive trade-restrictive measures” in an attempt to isolate Venezuela economically. These measures included “certain US laws and regulations relating to goods of Venezuelan origin, the liquidity of Venezuelan public debt, transactions in Venezuelan digital currency, and the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List [which] are inconsistent with the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS),” according to a statement by the WTO. Continue Reading

FCPA/Anti-Corruption Developments: 2018 Year in Review

By Steptoe International on Posted in FCPA / Anti-Corruption

US government enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) remained robust in 2018, and the trend of increasing multi-jurisdictional cooperation and enforcement continued throughout the year. In the United States, the 33 combined individual and corporate FCPA enforcement actions concluded by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018 were largely consistent with the average number of enforcement actions brought over the last seven years. The US $2.91 billion in monetary sanctions levied in corporate FCPA enforcement matters in 2018 reached a record high, although the chart-topping $1.78 billion penalty imposed as part of the Petrobras settlement accounts for more than half of this amount. Outside the United States, a number of countries continue to substantially enhance the legal and regulatory structure for international anti-corruption enforcement, including by passing legislation establishing corporate liability for certain types of bribery offenses and authorizing prosecutors to enter deferred prosecution agreements or other negotiated resolutions with companies accused of bribery.

For more information, please see our advisory and full report.

European Commission Adds US Territories to “Dirty Money” List in Departure from FATF

By Jeff Beatrice, Brian Egan, Alexandra Melia, Evan Abrams, Alexander Hamels and Jillian Norton on Posted in Anti-Money Laundering

On February 13, the European Commission adopted a new list of “high-risk” jurisdictions that the Commission identified as posing significant threats to the European Union’s financial system as a result of strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) frameworks.  In addition to countries like North Korea, Iran, and Syria, the list also includes four US territories.  In response, the US Department of Treasury expressed “significant concerns about the substance of the list,” which diverges from the list published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), as well as the “flawed process” by which the list was developed.  As a result of the new list, banks in the EU will be required to exercise enhanced due diligence when dealing with customers and financial institutions from the listed countries and territories.

According to the Commission, the new list reflects the broadened criteria for the identification of high-risk jurisdictions under the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which now includes “the availability of information on the beneficial owners of companies and legal arrangements” including trusts.  In creating this list, the Commission “developed its own methodology to identify high-risk countries, which relies on information from the Financial Action Task Force, complemented by its own expertise and other sources such as Europol.”  EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová stated that the list is aimed at ensuring that “dirty money from other countries does not find its way [into the EU’s] financial system,” and urged the listed countries “to remedy their deficiencies swiftly.” Continue Reading

Secretary Pompeo: More Russia Sanctions Are Coming … Sometime

By Brian Egan, Peter Jeydel and Evan Abrams on Posted in Economic Sanctions, Russia/Ukraine Sanctions

On February 13, 2019, the State Department provided a summary of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which stated that “Secretary Pompeo reiterated the U.S. determination to hold Russia accountable for its use of a chemical weapon in Salisbury, UK through sanctions as required by the CBW Act.”  The sanctions Secretary Pompeo referenced are the second round of sanctions slated to be imposed on Russia under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act) for that country’s use of a nerve agent against a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom.  The decision to impose the second round of CBW Act sanctions was announced in November of last year, but there has largely been radio silence from the administration over the past few months with respect to a timetable for imposition or the type of sanctions to be imposed.  While the summary of Secretary Pompeo’s call did not provide any additional detail on those questions, it is notable as it indicates that despite the months of delay the administration is still expressing an intent to move ahead with the sanctions. Continue Reading

PdVSA Sanctions Designation Has Significant Implications for US Business

By Steptoe International on Posted in Economic Sanctions, Venezuela Sanctions

As we have previously written, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) as a Specially Designated National (SDN) on January 28, 2019. This action will have a significant impact on US persons and businesses involved in any dealings with PdVSA or its subsidiaries. The designation also applies to any entity owned 50% or more by PdVSA, including companies with a significant US presence such as CITGO Holding, Inc. (CITGO). Accordingly, as of January 28, US persons are prohibited from engaging in all transactions with or otherwise involving PdVSA or any of its majority-owned subsidiaries and are required to block the property or interests in property of PdVSA and such subsidiaries unless a general or specific license applies.

For additional information on this action and associated general licenses, please see our advisory.

Foreign subsidiary trading with Iran? OFAC really means STRICT liability

By Peter Jeydel on Posted in Economic Sanctions, Sanctions Enforcement

On February 7, 2019, OFAC fined a Virginia-based company, Kollmorgen Corporation, for business that its recently-acquired Turkish subsidiary allegedly conducted in Iran after determining that Kollmorgen had undertaken “extensive preventative and remedial conduct” both before and after the acquisition in an effort to ensure the subsidiary complied with US sanctions.  OFAC also found that Kollmorgen had “conduct[ed] an effective and extensive internal investigation and submit[ed] a comprehensive voluntary self-disclosure to OFAC.”  Why, then, would OFAC fine this company, if it sounds like they did everything right?  The answer is strict liability.  OFAC’s civil enforcement authority applies on a strict liability basis, meaning if the prohibited conduct occurs, the agency can impose civil penalties, even if there is no negligence, intent, or other finding of fault.  Attorneys often advise their clients that as a technical matter OFAC penalties can apply even if the company does everything that’s feasible to comply with the law, underscoring the potential risk in dealing with sanctioned countries or sanctioned parties.  But OFAC frequently declines to penalize companies under such circumstances, and instead often closes out such cases with a “warning letter”.  While the amount of the fine here was very small ($13,381, quite a downward departure from the statutory maximum of $1,500,000) due to the mitigating conduct of the US parent, other costs of the enforcement process and a finding of violation can still be significant.

The individual at the foreign subsidiary who was found to be culpable for this conduct was added to OFAC’s Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE) list under Executive Order 13608, which imposes a broad restriction similar to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.  This is an interesting approach to sanction an individual employee of a foreign subsidiary of a US company while providing a high degree of leniency to the cooperating US company.  Very likely Kollmorgen provided significant information about this individual’s conduct to OFAC as part of its voluntary disclosure.  OFAC provided some detail about the individual’s role in “directing” the Iran-related violations and attempting to “conceal” that activity, with a senior Treasury official remarking “This action is a clear warning that anyone in supervisory or managerial positions who directs staff to provide services, falsify records, commit fraud, or obstruct an investigation into sanctions violations exposes themselves to serious personal risk.”   OFAC remarked that this coupling of an FSE designation with a civil enforcement action was “unprecedented.” Continue Reading

OFAC Enforcement Action Highlights Sanctions Risk in Supply Chain

By John London on Posted in Economic Sanctions, Export Controls, Sanctions Enforcement

On January 31, 2019, OFAC announced a $996,080 settlement with e.l.f. Cosmetics, Inc. (“ELF”) for violations of the North Korea Sanctions Regulations arising from the importation of 156 shipments of false eyelash kits that contained materials that were sourced from North Korea and that were purchased from suppliers in China.

In January 2017, ELF discovered that approximately 80% of its false eyelash kits contained materials from North Korea, and ELF voluntarily disclosed the violation to OFAC. Among other aggravating factors, OFAC alleged that funds for the materials came under the control of the North Korean government and that ELF was a large and commercially sophisticated company engaged in a substantial volume of international trade with a “non-existent or inadequate” sanctions compliance program.

Ultimately, OFAC found that the violations were non-egregious and provided substantial mitigation against the $2,213,510 base penalty level. OFAC credited a number of specific steps that ELF undertook to prevent the risk of future violations: Continue Reading

Trump Administration Designates PdVSA, Issues General Licenses

By Evan Abrams and Jillian Norton on Posted in Economic Sanctions, Venezuela Sanctions

On January 28, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designation of Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) as a Specially Designated National (SDN).  The designation was made pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13850 (Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela).  That order initially applied only to the Venezuelan gold sector, but as part of the Treasury Department’s actions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin determined “that persons operating in Venezuela’s oil sector are subject to sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13850,” allowing for the designation of PdVSA.

As is the case with all SDNs, all property and interests in property of PdVSA in the possession or control of a US person or within the United States must be blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with the company.  Such prohibitions also extend to entities owned 50% or greater by PdVSA.  Given the sizable role that PdVSA and its subsidiaries play in the US economy and petroleum industry, OFAC issued 8 new general licenses (GLs) with the goal of limiting potential disruption from the designation. Continue Reading

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