On 11 February 2025, we saw the first public multi-jurisdictional coordinated sanctions action under the Trump Administration when the United States, Australia, and the UK announced joint sanctions against alleged key members of a Russian cybercrime supply chain. This action was taken by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (“UK FCDO”). See the US…
Baker McKenzie will be hosting a seminar on 8 October 2024 in Dubai as part of our EMEA Russia Sanctions Briefings. We will be joined for the seminar by representatives from our Global Sanctions Investigations Group, including from our US and London offices. The seminars will focus on the multijurisdictional sanctions challenges facing financial institutions and other companies in the Gulf, in relation to the US, UK, EU and UAE sanctions regimes, particularly against Russia.…
On 12 September, the UK Government announced new powers for the civil enforcement of trade sanctions pursuant to the Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) Regulations 2024, the “Trade Enforcement Regulations”). From 10 October 2024, the Government will be able to impose penalties of up to GBP 1 million or 50% of the value of breaches of trade sanctions (whichever is greater) in relation to certain breaches of UK trade sanctions. The new powers…
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…