On August 9, 2024, the US, EU, UK and Canada released a joint statement announcing new sanctions against Belarus, referring to the fourth anniversary of fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus that resulted in Alexander Lukashenko remaining in power. These authorities cited Belarus’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and ongoing human rights abuses in Belarus as the motivations for the latest round of sanctions. Members of our global sanctions team in the US,…
On 13 June 2024, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) expanded its Consolidated List, which provides details of individuals and legal entities designated under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/855). There are 42 new entries added to the Consolidated List which are now subject to an asset freeze and trust services sanctions. Notably, Moscow Exchange, SPB Exchange and National Settlement Depository are amongst some of the new Russian entries. Earlier this week,…
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI“) published an update to the monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions guidance (“Guidance”) on 2 May 2024 (see here). The Guidance explains when and how OFSI will use its civil enforcement powers to impose monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions, including guidance on how such penalties will be calculated. The most recent changes primarily focus on Chapter 3 (Case assessment) of the Guidance. Following the recent update, OFSI…