On August 14, 2023, the US State Department, the Labor Department, and the Commerce Department issued a business advisory (“Business Advisory”) highlighting key risks for companies operating in South Sudan. While it does not impose new legal obligations on companies, the Business Advisory highlights the fact that list-based sanctions remain in force targeting certain South Sudanese persons including designations under the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, and…
On June 27, 2023, the US Departments of State, the Treasury, Labor, Commerce, and Homeland Security, and the United States Agency for International Development issued a joint advisory — the Africa Gold Advisory (“Advisory”) — that (i) highlights the opportunities and specific risks raised by the gold trade across sub-Saharan Africa and (ii) encourages industry participants to adopt and apply strengthened due diligence practices to guard against such risks. The Advisory states that it was…
On April 27, 2023, the US Department of State (“State”) designated Russia’s Federal Security Service (“FSB”) and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization (“IRGC-IO”) pursuant to Executive Order (“EO”) 14078 (Bolstering Efforts To Bring Hostages and Wrongfully Detained United States Nationals Home), with the result that the IRGC-IO has been added to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”). The IRGC as a whole and FSB were previously designated on the…
On May 2, 2023, for the second time this year, the US and Turkish governments took joint action in imposing sanctions. Specifically, the United States and Türkiye imposed sanctions against two individuals determined to be financial facilitators of Syria-based terrorist groups Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (“HTS”) and Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (“KTJ”), both of which are sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations. This follows a prior joint action in January targeting parties associated with…