On July 27, 2017, the US Senate approved in a 98-2 vote H.R. 3364, the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (“H.R. 3364”). We previously summarized H.R. 3364 in our blog posts here and here. H.R. 3364 now goes to the White House where the President will have 10 days to (1) sign the bill, (2) veto the bill, or (3) permit the bill to become law without his signature. The 10-day clock will start when the US Congress delivers H.R. 3364 to the President, which may happen in a few days.
Last month, the US Senate passed significant Russia sanctions legislation as an amendment to an Iran sanctions bill targeting Iran’s ballistic missile program. The Russia sanctions provisions sought to limit the President’s ability to relax existing US sanctions targeting Russia while imposing additional restrictions impacting various sectors of the Russian economy. The key provisions of the Senate bill are summarized in our earlier blog post.
On June 29, 2017, the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued for public inspection a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) that would restrict a Chinese commercial bank’s access to the US financial system based on a finding that the bank was involved in money laundering activities involving North Korea. This action coincided with designations by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of one entity and two individuals with alleged ties to North Korea.
On November 9, 2016, the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) imposing additional restrictions on North Korean banks and other financial institutions. The Final Rule follows a related June 3, 2016 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and FinCEN’s June 2, 2016 Finding that North Korea is a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, 31 U.S.C. 5318A. These developments were discussed in our previous blog post.