On November 6, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry Security (“BIS”) and the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a joint notice (“Joint Notice”) to announce a new Suspicious Activity Report (“SAR”) key term for financial institutions when reporting possible attempts by entities or individuals to evade US export controls. This builds on similar efforts by BIS and FinCEN to require SARs for transactions related to transactions that may…
In the past week, both the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) in the US Treasury Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) took steps related to Hamas, which they indicated were linked to the recent Hamas attacks on Israel. New OFAC Sanctions On October 18, 2023, OFAC added a number of parties determined to be connected to Hamas to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN”). As described in the…
On September 8, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) published a Financial Trend Analysis (“FTA”) highlighting trends related to suspected evasion of Russia-related export controls observed in reports required to be filed by financial institutions with FinCEN under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), such as through suspicious activity reports. The FTA highlights certain evasion red flags useful for purposes of companies’ own compliance efforts, while also serving as a…
On January 25, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued an alert to financial institutions regarding potential investments in the US commercial real estate (“CRE”) sector by sanctioned Russian individuals, their family members, and entities through which they act (“Alert”). The Alert complements an earlier alert that FinCEN issued in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Our coverage of the March 2022 alert can be found here. In…