Day: October 18, 2018

This UK Order extends the reporting requirements on financial institutions in existing Overseas Territories sanctions orders to certain other businesses and professions – namely auditors, casinos, dealers in precious metals and stones, external accountants, independent legal professionals, real estate agents, tax advisers, and trust or company service providers, and businesses and professions will commit an offence if they fail to comply with the reporting obligations.

The territories affected are Anguilla, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn (including Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands), St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the Turks and Caicos Islands and BVI.

The measures corresponds to the reporting requirements in the UK extended to the same non-financial businesses or professions in 2017.

Institutions and businesses affected are required to report if they know or suspect that one of their customers is a designated person for sanctions purposes, has dealt with funds belonging to or made funds available to a designated person, or made a false statement or provided a false document when applying for a licence to authorise activity otherwise prohibited by an asset freeze.  Failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1076/pdfs/uksiem_20181076_en.pdf

These new UK Regulations provide for the implementation and enforcement in the UK of the new sanctions regime to be adopted under Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1542 with effect from 16^th October.  The Council Regulation does not currently contain any designated persons to whom the new financial sanctions provisions apply, but the EU will designate persons by including them in Annex I in due course.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1090/contents/made

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/748914/HM_Treasury_Notice_16-10-2018_CW__003___002_.pdf

 

EurActiv on 17^th October reported that social media and delivery services have become new outlets for organised crime activities when it comes to illicit cigarette trade, according to a new study from RUSI that has raised eyebrows among EU policymakers.  The study emphasised that in countries such as the UK and France, social media played a major role in selling illicit tobacco products online.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/study-finds-rising-illicit-cigarette-trade-on-social-media/

The report is available at –

https://rusi.org/publication/occasional-papers/e-commerce-delivery-services-and-illicit-tobacco-trade

Skadden has published an article which provides an overview of recent developments in Venezuela-related sanctions in the US and the EU, where authorities have imposed new sanctions in response to ongoing political developments.  It says that since 2014 Venezuela has faced an increasingly hardened sanctions regime imposed by western nations.  The article focuses on the US and the EU Venezuela-related sanctions, several other jurisdictions have also issued sanctions against Venezuela, such as Canada.  It provides an overview of the US and EU Venezuela-related sanctions, discusses compliance challenges for businesses navigating Venezuela-related sanctions and provides practical guidance to ensure compliance.

https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2018/10/venezuela-related-sanctions-us-and-eu-developments

A posting from law chambers 6KBW on 17^th October said that the High Court case of KBR Inc v the Director of the SFO  had ruled that requests for the production of documents could be made to foreign companies which have a “sufficient connection” to the UK contrasts with the attempt to extend beyond the UK the ambit of information notices under section 357 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in the Supreme Court case of Serious and Organised Crime Agency v Perry.  It details the decision in the former case, and then asks what about Perry?  It asks how the KBR decision sit with Perry, mentioning that the information notices were issued against persons outside and unconnected with this country, whereas the notices issued against KBR were issued against a company based here where the wider group was sufficiently connected with the UK; and that the legislation in the KBR case already had “some extraterritorial application”, which was not the case with POCA – although the post argues that it does not, on its face, assert any extraterritorial ambit, any more than section 357 of POCA did.  Examining possible ramifications of the latest decision, it says that the matter is not yet finished.

https://blog.6kbw.com/posts/mixed-messages-is-there-an-inconsistency-as-to-the-extra-territorial-ambit-of-disclosure-between-poca-and-the-sfo

Aviation Week on 17^th October reported that corporate jet operator GainJet Ireland has become the first to join Ireland’s new corporate jet registry, the first aircraft to be given an “EJ” registration, taking advantage of the new registry launched by the Irish Aviation Authority.  Prompted by the success of the M registry started by the Isle of Man and the 2 registry started by Guernsey, the new programme was developed specifically for corporate operators for aircraft weighing over 5,700 kg maximum take-off weight.  However, there has been little take-up in 3 years since its launch.

http://aviationweek.com/nbaa-2018/first-aircraft-joins-irish-ej-register

On 17^th October, OFAC designated Afaq Dubai, an Iraq-based money services business (MSB) that has been moving money for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying that the MSB is a part of ISIS’s financial network that includes an array of other MSB, hawalas, and financial facilitators in the Middle East.  It is run by 2 ISIS financiers, and, as of early 2018, laundered money for ISIS and provided money to ISIS families.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm526

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20181017.aspx