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 Monday 5th June, the EU published an amendment to the existing sanctions against Russia, which came into force on Monday 5th June. The implementing regulation is available here. These measures permit the designation of leading business persons operating in Russia, along with: immediate family members; other natural persons benefitting from them; and business persons involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Russian Government. These amendments were made on the…
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…