Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury, and Department of Justice Tri-Seal Compliance Note:
Cracking Down on Third-Party Intermediaries Used to Evade Russia-Related Sanctions and Export Controls
OVERVIEW
Over the year following Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war against Ukraine, the U.S. government has used its economic tools to degrade Russia’s economy and war machine. Along with international partners and allies, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) have imposed sanctions and export controls of an unprecedented scope and scale in an effort to degrade Russia’s ability to wage its unjust war and to prevent it from taking military action elsewhere.[1] The Department of Justice (DOJ) has matched these unprecedented restrictions with equally unprecedented enforcement efforts to aggressively prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions and export control laws, led by the...
1) While this is the first document given the title "Tri-Seal Compliance Note," it is not easy to distinguish from the standard multi-agency "Advisory". See e.g. Advisory on the Cyber Threat Posed by North Korea and Sanctions Advisory for the Maritime Industry, Energy and Metals Sectors, and Related Communities.
As is typical of such advisories, the document does not break new ground as it relates to the scope and operation of OFAC-administered sanctions laws, but it does explain evasion typologies and otherwise have implications for diligence expectations in a way that would, in a hypothetical enforcement proceeding, likely have implications for that which an alleged violator "knew of" or had a "reason to know" of (see generally General Note on the Terms "Knowingly," "Should Have Known" And "Reason to Know" In the Primary Sanctions,...