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2 months ago | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen |Alasdair Weir |Aleesha Way
EU foreign ministers recently agreed on a roadmap to ease sanctions targeting Syria. A range of financial, trade and sectoral sanctions are currently in place. For instance, Syrian oil exports are currently banned as well as restrictions on access to global financial channels. However, the EU is keen to begin lifting these measures in a “step by step” approach. The first restrictions likely to be eased include those impacting the banking, energy, and transport sectors.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen |William Brillat-Capello |Aleesha Way |Andrew Mitchell
William Brillat-Capello of Pinsent Masons in Paris highlighted that the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has been asked to interpret the scope of EU sanctions regulations relating to Yemen in a case arising from the courts in France, where oil companies have been trying to obtain annulment of a damages award made against them in an ICC arbitration.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen
In the UK, financial sanctions are administered by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) and include: asset freezes; restrictions on accessing financial markets, loans and credit; restrictions on the provision of financial, insurance, brokering and other financial services; and directions to cease all business – these restrictions can apply to a specific person, group, sector or country.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Melanie Ryan |Stacy Keen
OTSI has been set up under the Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) Regulations 2024 to enforce compliance with certain parts of the UK’s trade sanctions on a civil basis. The regulations bringing the body into operation became effective on 10 October. The civil enforcement powers of OTSI align with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), which can enforce non-compliance with financial sanctions on a civil basis.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen
Businesses exporting high-risk goods need to take extra steps in due diligence in these scenarios to ensure compliance according to the new guidance (8-page / 879KB PDF), issued jointly by the ‘Group of 7’ (G7) countries.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen
It follows a penalty imposed on Integral Concierge Services Limited (ICSL), a small property management and concierge company, for violating the financial sanctions regimewhich targeted individuals and entities in response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022. ICSL predominantly provided services primarily to Russian and Ukrainian nationals. The fine highlights “key lessons” for industry, particularly firms within the property management sector, the UK government said.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Melanie Ryan |Stacy Keen
The new rules will require the institutions to notify the Secretary of State “as soon as practicable” when they become aware, or have reasonable cause to suspect, that a third party they are dealing with has breached a prohibition or failed to comply with an obligation under trade sanctions regulations, where the information or other matter on which the knowledge or cause for suspicion is based came to them in the course of carrying on their business.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen
Under the new civil regime, those that breach certain UK trade sanctions face being fined up to £1 million or 50% of the estimated value of the breach or failure to comply, whichever is greater. Fines will be able to be imposed on the balance of probabilities and will apply on a strict liability basis, with it being no defence for the ‘accused’ to demonstrate that they did not know or had no reasonable cause to suspect that an offence had been committed.
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Sep 10, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen
The update of the exceptions to the ban on legal advisory services under the UK Russian sanctions regime took effect on Friday 6 September. Last year, the previous UK government legislated to introduce a ban relating to the provision of legal advisory services to non-UK persons in the context of activity prohibited under the UK’s financial and trade sanctions.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
pinsentmasons.com | Stacy Keen
According to data obtained from HM Treasury by Pinsent Masons, 75 companies voluntarily disclosed to the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) that their business operations breached financial sanctions aimed against Russia in the year to February 2024.
