On May 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Syria General License (GL) 25 to provide immediate sanctions relief for Syria in line with President Trump’s May 13, 2025...more
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, we have seen an extraordinary range of sanctions and export controls restrictions introduced by tens of countries worldwide. The current sanctions imposed on Russia by the...more
Key Points -
The United States, European Union, United Kingdom and other U.S. allies are currently considering a range of severe economic measures against Russia to impose in the event of a Russian military incursion into...more
1/31/2022
/ Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
Ukraine
• On October 23, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed the two Turkish government ministries and three ministers that it added to its Specially Designated Nationals and...more
10/25/2019
/ Blocked Person ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Policy ,
Foreign Relations ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Syria ,
Trump Administration ,
Turkey
• A new Executive Order signed October 14, 2019, authorizes U.S. sanctions related to the military conflict between Turkey and Syria, providing broad authority to impose sanctions against Turkish government agencies,...more
On September 9, 2019, the Trump administration implemented additional U.S. sanctions on Cuba by restricting personal remittances to Cuba and eliminating authorization for U.S. banks to process “U-turn” transactions involving...more
9/11/2019
/ Banking Sector ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Cuba ,
Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Foreign Policy ,
Fund Transfers ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Personal Remittance Caps ,
Trump Administration ,
U-Turn Transactions ,
U.S. Treasury
• In a further escalation of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela in support of its efforts to oust the regime of Nicolás Maduro, on August 5, 2019, the Trump administration imposed comprehensive sanctions on the Government of...more
8/19/2019
/ Banking Sector ,
Blocked Entities ,
Blocked Person ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
Foreign Relations ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
SDN List ,
Trump Administration ,
Venezuela
• OFAC recently added a Moscow-based Russian-Venezuelan joint venture bank, Evrofinance Mosnarbank (“Evrofinance”), to the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the “SDN List”) for engaging in sanctions...more
3/29/2019
/ Banking Sector ,
Blocked Person ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Joint Venture ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Oil & Gas ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Trump Administration ,
Venezuela
In this episode, Akin Gump cross-border transactions partner Melissa Schwartz discusses economic sanctions and their impact on transactions, specifically, how businesses minimize the risk they face of sanctions...more
10/18/2018
/ Business Entities ,
CAATSA ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Due Diligence ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Foreign Entities ,
Foreign Policy ,
Franchises ,
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Mitigation ,
SDN List ,
Secondary Sanctions ,
Trade Policy ,
Trump Administration
• On May 22, 2018, OFAC issued General License 15, authorizing U.S. persons to engage in specified transactions related to maintenance or wind-down of operations, contracts or other agreements involving GAZ Group or any...more