On May 12, 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced the lifting of US sanctions on Nynas AB (“Nynas”) and the related revocation of General License No. 13E (“Authorizing Certain Activities Involving Nynas AB”) (“GL 13E”). We blogged about last month’s extension of GL 13E here. Nynas and its subsidiaries were previously subject to US sanctions because Nynas was indirectly owned and controlled by PetrĂłleos de Venezuela SA (“PdVSA”) and,…
On April 15, 2020, the US Departments of State, Homeland Security, and the Treasury (“Treasury”), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an advisory warning about the cyber threat posed by North Korea, calling particular attention to banks and other financial institutions (“Advisory”). The Advisory (i) highlights North Korea’s malicious cyber activities across the globe, (ii) identifies and recommends measures to counter the cyber threat, including cybersecurity best practices, and (iii) summarizes potential enforcement actions…
On April 21, 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) amended General License (“GL”) 8E and re-issued it as General Licence No. 8F. GL 8F extends the validity period of certain maintenance activities involving PetrĂłleos de Venezuela S.A. (“PdVSA”) until December 1, 2020, but also narrows the scope of the prior license and provides a new authorization for “wind-down” transactions and activities. Our blog posts describing previous amendments to the general license…
On April 16, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) published a Fact Sheet providing a helpful consolidated summary of the various existing exemptions, exceptions, and authorizations relating to the provision of humanitarian assistance that are available under certain U.S. sanctions programs to leverage in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Separately, on April 20, 2020, OFAC issued a notice encouraging the prompt communication to OFAC of concerns over potential delays in…