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…
The US Departments of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security warned companies in a new advisory that deceptive practices by North Korea to evade US, UN, and other sanctions could put them at risk of prohibited or sanctionable dealings with the North Korean regime. The advisory published on July 24, 2018 follows February 2018 guidance from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control regarding certain deceptive shipping practices of North Korea to avoid US sanctions (see our prior blog post here). The new advisory encourages companies to undertake enhanced due diligence within their supply chains to avoid prohibited or sanctionable: (i) sourcing of goods, services, or technology from North Korea and (ii) use of the labor of North Korean citizens or nationals, which is presumed to be forced labor, regardless of where such labor occurs.