On May 14, 2020, the US Department of State, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), and the US Coast Guard issued guidance to the private sector aimed at preventing deceptive shipping practices used in sanctions evasion, smuggling, facilitation of terrorism, and other criminal activity (the “Advisory”). The Advisory focuses on tactics recently used by malign actors to evade sanctions and sets out a non-exhaustive list of best practices companies…
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 10, 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued a rule amending the North Korea Sanctions Regulations (“NKSR”). The NKSR amendments implement certain provisions of the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 (“NKSPEA”), as amended by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA”), and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (“2020 NDAA”). Our prior blog post on NKSPEA can be found here…
On November 06, 2019, the Swiss Government adopted selective adjustments to the Swiss sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, thereby implementing the exceptions to the export ban agreed by the UN SC Sanctions Committee. The amendment will come into force on 1 December 2019.