On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law H.R. 815[1], an emergency supplemental appropriations law, that provides $95.3 billion in military aid to U.S. allies and requires the divestiture of certain social media applications. While much of the discussion surrounding the new law focuses on the emergency foreign aid funding for Ukraine, Israel, and … Continue Reading
Congress recently passed the Rebuilding Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians (“REPO”) Act, bipartisan legislation authorizing the Administration to seize billions of dollars in Russian sovereign assets to fund Ukraine reconstruction and aid. The legislation raises issues that could have political and legal consequences – for companies and individuals. Join members of the firm’s Policy and … Continue Reading
In June 2022, the Group of Seven (“G7”) countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—decided to pursue a policy to cap the price of Russian oil. In December 2022, the G7 countries, joined by Australia and the supranational European Union (together, the “Price Cap Coalition”) officially implemented measures to ban … Continue Reading
The second half of 2023 saw eight enforcement actions from the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). These actions reflect a range of penalties, industries, sanctions programs, conduct, and lessons learned. Below are some highlights from OFAC’s enforcement releases and settlement agreements. Penalties OFAC imposed a total of $984,851,289.90 in penalties … Continue Reading
Following a ruling issued last week by a federal judge in Texas, ExxonMobil Corporation (“ExxonMobil”) will not have to pay a previously issued penalty for contracting with Russia’s state-owned PJSC Rosneft Oil Company (“Rosneft”), since it was not provided fair notice by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) that … Continue Reading
In his semi-annual report to Congress, Michael K. Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, expressed “hope that recent events will not have a chilling effect on the willingness of individuals within the Intelligence Community to continue to shed light on suspected fraud, waste, abuse, or malfeasance in an authorized manner.” In an article published in Corporate … Continue Reading
