On April 14, 2026, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued two new general licenses (“GLs”) — GL 56 and GL 57, which further ease longstanding US sanctions targeting Venezuela. OFAC also issued a new Frequently Asked Question (“FAQ”) to clarify the scope of the reporting requirements included in several Venezuela-related GLs. These GLs address certain gaps in the previous sanctions framework and removal of certain restrictions by broadening the…
On February 13, 2026, the US Treasury Department’s (“Treasury”) Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced the launch of a new dedicated webpage for the confidential submission of whistleblower tips on fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations. Based on the press release, The new initiative follows President Trump’s recent efforts to combat the government benefits fraud schemes in Minnesota. Treasury has encouraged whistleblowers to submit tips as soon as possible and to include specific, well-documented information to…
On December 15, 2025, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has issued Belarus General License 13 (“GL 13”), “Authorizing Transactions Involving Joint Stock Company Belarusian Potash Company, Agrorozkvit LLC, and Belaruskali OAO.” GL 13 authorizes all transactions involving the following entities that are otherwise prohibited by the Belarus Sanctions Regulations (“BSR”): GL 13 does not authorize the unblocking of any blocked property or any transactions involving any other blocked persons…
In significant parallel actions this week, the EU and US imposed new sanctions on Russia. While the EU’s 19th sanctions package is much broader in scope, the measures overlap in their focus on the Russian energy sector, with the US imposing full blocking sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil majors, OJSC Rosneft Oil Company (“Rosneft”) and Lukoil OAO (“Lukoil”) and the EU imposing a full ban on Russia-origin liquified natural gas (“LNG”), among other energy sector…