The EU Council has revoked the framework for restrictive measures against the Maldives that it adopted on 16 July 2018. Following a deterioration of the political situation in the Maldives in the first half of 2018, the framework allowed for the imposition of a travel ban and an asset freeze on persons and entities responsible for undermining the rule of law or obstructing an inclusive political solution in the Maldives, as well as persons and…
On 25 February 2019, OFSI announced that it had imposed its first civil monetary penalty, almost two years after it gained the power to impose fines under the Policing and Crime Act 2017. The GBP 5,000 penalty was imposed on R. Raphael & Sons plc, one of the UK’s oldest independent private lenders, for processing a GBP 200 transfer to a sanctioned associate of the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in breach of the Egypt…
The Department for International Trade (“DIT”) yesterday published Notice to exporters 2017/25 (the “Notice”) in light of the new restrictive measures, including an arms embargo and internal repression related controls, imposed by the EU effective from 14 November 2017 (the “Measures”). Please see here for our previous blog post regarding introduction of the Measures. The Notice provides useful guidance to UK exporters on interpretation issues, as well as further detail on the restrictions from a…
Following on from a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (“FAC”) yesterday, at which the FAC unanimously agreed to impose restrictive measures on Venezuela, the EU has today published Council Decision 2017/2074 and Council Regulation (EU) 2017/2063 (together, the “Legislation”). The Legislation prescribes targeted sanctions against Venezuela, including an arms embargo, with immediate effect. The Legislation has been formulated in response to the continuing crisis in Venezuela and the perceived deterioration of democracy, the…