Last week, among the flurry of new sanctions announcements marking the one-year anniversary of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the G7 announced the creation of a new Enforcement Coordination Mechanism “to bolster compliance and enforcement of our measures and deny Russia the benefits of G7 economies.” The International Group of Seven (“G7”) is an intergovernmental forum whose members include the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan, with the European Union as a “non-enumerated”…
On January 17, 2023, the US Department of Justice (“DOJ” or the “Department”) issued a revised version of its Criminal Division Corporate Enforcement Policy (“CEP”). The CEP sets out the Criminal Division’s approach to resolving cases with corporations. In particular, it addresses how the Criminal Division will credit companies which voluntarily disclose criminal conduct and cooperate during the investigation and resolution of the matter. Our analysis of the latest changes to the CEP can be…
On May 2, 2019, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) published A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments (the “Framework”). This long-awaited document sets out OFAC’s expectations for effective sanctions compliance programs (“SCPs”). While the broad elements of the Framework should be familiar to seasoned compliance practitioners, the details highlight the specific significance that OFAC attaches to SCPs in resolving enforcement actions. Indeed, we are already seeing OFAC settlements conditioned on compliance enhancements reflected in the Framework.