On October 9, 2024, the US Commerce Departmentâs Bureau of Industry and Security (âBISâ) issued guidance to financial institutions on best practices for compliance with the US Export Administrations Regulations (âEARâ). The guidance aims to help financial institutions minimize the inadvertent EAR violations, especially under General Prohibition 10 (âGP 10â), which prohibits financing or servicing items subject to the EAR with knowledge that a violation of the EAR has occurred, is about to occur, or…
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has issued an interim final rule to extend OFAC’s recordkeeping requirements for certain transactions from 5 to 10 years. This development mirrors the recent extension of the statute of limitations for civil and criminal violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (“TWEA”) to 10 years. Civil enforcement actions brought by OFAC for violations of IEEPA or…
In the midst of ongoing sanctions investigations and enforcement actions, companies are faced with yet another challenge: interested third-party stakeholders. Companies must decide who to share information with, what levels and types of information to share, how to share information, and how to mitigate the risks of loss of legal privilege, leaks, and triggering disclosure/reporting obligations by others. In this blog post, the Global Sanctions Investigations Group focuses on three critical third party stakeholders â…
The US Commerce Departmentâs Bureau of Industry and Security (âBISâ) has issued amendments to the Export Administration Regulations, 15 C.F.R. Parts 730-774 (âEARâ) that, most significantly, define the scope of âstandards-related activitiesâ that are subject to US export controls jurisdiction under the EAR. The purpose of these amendments is to ensure that US export controls and associated compliance concerns do not impede the participation and leadership of US companies in legitimate standards-related activities. BIS also…