US trade sanctions and export controls targeting Iran have attracted increasing attention from Chinese companies doing business in Iran or with Iran counterparties. This client alert aims to provide a high-level overview on US trade sanctions and export controls targeting Iran, their implications (particularly in terms of their extraterritorial application), and the potential penalties that can be imposed on companies and their executives and employees in the event of violations.
On November 27, 2018, the President signed Executive Order 13851 targeting Nicaragua entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua” (“Nicaragua EO”) available here. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) also issued a press release related to the Nicaragua EO available here, and added two close associates of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) pursuant to the new Nicaragua EO, the notice for which is available here. The two new SDNs are the current Vice President of Nicaragua and President Ortega’s wife, Rosario Maria Murillo de Ortega, and President Ortega’s national security adviser, Nestor Moncada Lau.
On November 15, 2018, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated seventeen individuals as Specially Designated Nationals (“SDNs”) under Executive Order 13818, which implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (“Global Magnitsky Act”), in connection with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. These individuals include Saud al-Qahtani, a former top aide to the crown prince, and Mohammed al-Otaibi, the consul general of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where Mr. Khashoggi was killed on October 2, 2018. The full list of the designated individuals can be found here.
On November 5, 2018, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) took several actions to finalize the re-imposition of sanctions against Iran in response to President Trump’s May 8, 2018 decision to cease the United States’ participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”). See our previous blog posts here regarding the President’s May 8, 2018 decision to cease the United States’ participation in the JCPOA and here regarding Executive Order (“EO”) 13846, issued on August 6, 2018, which consolidated and reissued several sanctions provisions that had been suspended or revoked while the JCPOA was in effect.