§542.413 Facilitation; change of policies and procedures; referral of business opportunities offshore.
With respect to §542.210, a prohibited facilitation or approval of a transaction by a foreign person occurs, among other instances, when a United States person:
(a) Alters its operating policies or procedures, or those of a foreign affiliate, to permit a foreign affiliate to accept or perform a specific contract, engagement or transaction involving Syria or the Government of Syria without the approval of the United States person, where such transaction previously required approval by the United States person and such transaction by the foreign affiliate would be prohibited by this part if performed directly by a United States person or from the United States;
(b) Refers to a foreign person purchase orders, requests for bids, or similar business opportunities involving Syria or the Government of Syria to which the United States person could not directly...
1) Read in light of 542.210; see comment thereto.
Note that, with respect to the alteration of policies, the provision is drafted to suggest that the mere alteration of policies counts as "facilitation" even if no actual transaction has been facilitated as a result of the change. Generally, "facilitation" charges come with the identification of a predicate prohibition, i.e. a prohibition (other than facilitation) that the transaction facilitated violated or would have violated if the parties to the transaction were U.S. persons or otherwise subject to sanctions prohibitions. It is possible to explain the apparent breadth of the policy alteration provision with OFAC considering the mere alteration of policies in the manner described to constitute an "attempt" to violate one or more sanctions prohibitions. OFAC has charged violations of "attempted facilitation." In addition, note that policy changes are only prohibited if they...