On 24 February 2025, the third anniversary of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine, the UK Government announced 107 new designations targeting individuals, businesses (including several state-owned entities), government officials and vessels in what it labelled its most extensive set of sanctions against Russia since the start of the invasion. According to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (“FCDO”) press release, this package is aimed at weakening Russia’s military supply chains, revenues fuelling the war…
On 11 June 2024, the UK Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in the case of Celestial Aviation Services Limited v UniCredit Bank GmbH (London Branch) [2024] EWCA Civ 628. In summary, the Court of Appeal determined that, in the context of payment obligations under standby letters of credit (“LCs”), sanctions measures relating to financing the supply of restricted items can apply retrospectively as well as prospectively, significantly widening the scope of application of…
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 –…
For the second week of our Annual Compliance Conference, we discussed key trade compliance issues impacting our clients globally. Specifically, we discussed the trade policy response of the US, EU and U.K. to ever increasing geopolitical disruption, global strategies for handling sanctions regulators and enforcement, and key global sanctions and export controls developments. Trade policy response to geopolitical disruption – China and beyond Tuesday 7 May SPEAKERS: Tristan Grimmer (Partner, London), Sylwia Lis (Partner, Washington…