Secondary Sanctions Enforcement Announcement - Kunlun Bank (China) and Elaf Bank in (Iraq)

Date issued: Jul. 31 2012

TURBOFAC Commentary (153 words)

Notes:

First and only correspondent account-focused sanctions on a non-U.S. bank under secondary sanctions legislation. As of 12/2020, Bank of Kunlun is the only entity on the "Part 561" (IFSR) list (now the "CAPTA List.")

Note that the 2007 "Banco Delta Asia" [1] and 2017 "Bank of Dandong" [2] cases, often discussed alongside these cases as an example of secondary sanctions enforcement against a non-U.S. bank, were actually an enforcement actions by FinCEN under Section 311 of the PATRIOT Act. Today the activity for which Banco Delta Asia and Bank of Dandong were cut off from the U.S. financial system would be secondarily sanctionable under 510.210 of the NKSR.

[1] See https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/federal_register_notices/2017-11-08/Dandong%20Final%202017-24238.pdf
[2] See https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/federal_register_notices/2017-11-08/Dandong%20Final%202017-24238.pdf