As developments related to COVID-19 continue to unfold, Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys are monitoring the situation and providing guidance through a series of video chats entitled, “COVID-19 Compliance Conversations.”
In this episode, Thad McBride is joined by Ed Bond, the Director of IBM’s Export Regulation Office, to discuss issues that exporters need to
As developments related to COVID-19 continue to unfold, Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys are monitoring the situation and providing guidance through a series of video chats entitled, “COVID-19 Compliance Conversations.”
In this episode, Thad McBride and Lindsey Fetzer provide a brief overview of compliance considerations related to international donations and charitable contributions. Watch the
The U.S. government continues to take action in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In so doing, the government has provided insight into those industries and operations deemed to be essential to U.S. national security. Lessons learned from these actions will almost certainly help inform U.S. policymakers and regulators when the current crisis has eased, particularly with respect to reviewing foreign investment in the United States. (Such investment, when it could implicate U.S. national security, is subject to review and approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.)
On March 19, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued guidance to identify those industries and businesses considered to be “essential” for U.S. continued operational purposes. That Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce was published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which forms part of DHS. The guidance is available here.Continue Reading COVID-19 and National Security: Federal Government Defines Essential Business
Despite the sobering news reports on the global spread of COVID-19, companies are
A bill was recently introduced by U.S. Representative Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin) that would allow the U.S. Treasury Department to target European financial intuitions conducting business with Iran through the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) vehicle in order to avoid U.S. sanctions.
While there have been a low number of actions against European institutions,
In two recent enforcement actions, the U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) demonstrated the long-arm of U.S. economic sanctions jurisdiction. One matter involved Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques SCRL (SITA), a Swiss firm that provides commercial telecommunications network and information technology services to the civilian air transport industry. The other involved Eagle Shipping International (Eagle), a U.S.-based shipping and logistics company.
Each action serves as a reminder of the U.S. government’s willingness to enforce U.S. sanctions in the context of what is primarily non-U.S. conduct. The resolutions also illustrate the potential benefits of voluntarily disclosing sanctions violations to OFAC.Continue Reading Sanctions Enforcement Update: Penalties for Logistics, Telecom Companies
In case you missed it, I provided insight on U.S. sanctions risks in the context of international supply chains to Supply Chain Management Now last month.
Citing examples, such as e.l.f. Cosmetics’s 2019 settlement for nearly $1 million for sanctions violations, I asserted in the article that both U.S. and non-U.S. companies need to understand how broadly U.S. sanctions are enforced.
In the article, I provided an overview of the current sanctions landscape in the U.S. and highlights particular challenges such as avoiding dealing with specially designated nationals (SDNs). The SDN list is vast and includes parties that reside nearly everywhere in the world. As I said in the article, “this creates a challenge because many of them are in countries not otherwise subject to U.S. sanctions.”Continue Reading U.S. Sanctions Risk to International Supply Chains
In case you missed it, we ended 2019 with a webinar on current topics in U.S. economic sanctions. Below are key points from the webinar:
At the end of December 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated a $2 million penalty that the U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had imposed against ExxonMobil for alleged violations of U.S. sanctions related to Russia and Ukraine. OFAC is the U.S. government agency that administers most U.S. sanctions.
This matter has been of interest since the penalty was first announced in July 2017 – read our July 2017 blog post detailing the matter. As described below, the district court’s reasoning in vacating the penalty against Exxon is worthy of interest, too.Continue Reading U.S. District Court Deals Rare Defeat to OFAC in U.S. Sanctions Matter
On September 27, 2019, Barclays PLC agreed to pay $6.3 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle charges that Barclays violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The Barclays settlement fits a pattern of recent U.S. government enforcement against companies, particularly in the financial services sector, relating to FCPA violations stemming from hiring or providing internships to relatives and friends of government officials. Penalties have been significant – for example, Credit Suisse Group AG paid a $47 million penalty in 2018 as part of a Justice Department FCPA investigation into their hiring practices in Asia. We previously wrote about this issue in an August 2015 article about a settlement related to the hiring practices of Bank of New York Mellon.
The Barclays matter is a useful reminder of three things:
Continue Reading (Another) Big Bank Pays FCPA Penalty for Hiring Practice