On June 29, 2017, the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued for public inspection a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) that would restrict a Chinese commercial bank’s access to the US financial system based on a finding that the bank was involved in money laundering activities involving North Korea. This action coincided with designations by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of one entity and two individuals with alleged ties to North Korea.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), the US Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Control (“DDTC”), and the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) have announced increases in the maximum civil monetary penalties (“CMPs”) under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (“2015 Act”). This statute requires the agencies to make such adjustments annually by January 15 of each year. These newly adjusted CMPs may be imposed for violations of OFAC sanctions regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). Although these are the first annual adjustments made under the 2015 Act, they follow initial “catch-up” adjustments that went into effect on August 1, 2016 and were previously described here.
On January 4, 2017, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) added five Russian parties to its Entity List. The move follows the issuance of amended Executive Order 13694 (“Cyber EO2”) on December 29, 2016 and the subsequent designation of five Russian entities and four individuals on the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (“OFAC”) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) (see prior blog post here).
On 7 October 2016, following his prior announcement (see prior blog post here) of the intention to terminate US sanctions targeting Myanmar (also known as Burma), President Obama issued an Executive Order (“the 7 October Executive Order”) terminating US sanctions targeting Myanmar. As a result of this action, the sanctions that previously restricted US Persons (i.e., US citizens or permanent residents, wherever located or employed; entities organized under US law (and their non-US branches); and persons located in the United States) from engaging in certain activities involving Myanmar or specific entities associated with Myanmar are no longer in effect. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) simultaneously published a Fact Sheet explaining these changes and updated its list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding Myanmar.