On March 30, 2023, the White House and US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced human rights and export control measures that underscore the US Government’s focus on human rights as a matter of foreign policy. The White House announcement is available here. The BIS announcement is available here. The White also issued a Fact Sheet that includes these announcements and other sanctions and export control provisions. White House: Export Controls…
On January 26, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) redesignated PMC Wagner (“Wagner Group”) a Significant Transnational Criminal Organization (“STCO”) pursuant to Executive Order 13581 (“EO 13581”) as amended by Executive Order 13863 (“EO 13863”) for the Wagner Group’s activities in Ukraine, the Central African Republican (“CAR”), and Mali. Concurrently, OFAC has sanctioned the Wagner Group under Executive Order 13667 (“EO 13667”) for its activities in the CAR.…
On September 30, 2022, the US Government imposed additional sanctions against Russia in response to Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhya following referenda. New SDN Designations and OFAC FAQ The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced hundreds of new Russia-related designations to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”). According to an accompanying press release, the designations include 14 individuals…
On August 19, 2022, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) replaced existing General License (“GL”) 38 with GL 38A and issued a new GL 50. These GLs authorize certain activities otherwise prohibited by EO 14024, which targets, among other things, specific sectors (including the financial services sector) of the Russian economy. Our prior blog post regarding EO 14024 and the financial sanctions imposed thereunder can be found here, here, here,…