Rachel Fiorill, former enforcement section chief at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, joined Morrison Foerster as of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced. Fiorill most recently worked at Paul Weiss, where she advised clients on "economic sanctions, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering," anti-corruption and export control proceedings. While at OFAC, Fiorill led investigations of hundreds of enforcement actions, serving as coordinator for the Enforcement Division's Ukraine, Russia and Syria-related investigations, Morrison Foerster said.
OFAC sanction activity
A federal magistrate judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in an order unsealed May 13 that the U.S. had probable cause to believe that an unnamed American citizen violated U.S. sanctions by using cryptocurrency to help various parties evade restrictions. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ruled that virtual currency is traceable and that sanctions apply to virtual currency (In Re: Criminal Complaint, D.D.C. #22-00067).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the sanctions listing of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, finding that the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control provided proper evidence for the listing. The court also held that while Deripaska was found to no longer own two major energy companies, OFAC found him to still operate them, justifying his placement in the Russian sanctions regime.
The U.S. charged American citizen John "Jack" Hanick with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia related to Russians promoting separatism in Crimea in 2014 via his work for sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Hanick was arrested on Feb. 3 in London and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the sanctions charge and five years in prison for a false statements charge. The criminal indictment is the first stemming from the 2014 Russia sanctions regime.
Akin Gump broadened its international trade practice with the addition of two former U.S. government officials and sanctions and export controls lawyers, the firm announced. Elyse Martin, former official at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and George Pence, former assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California, have joined the firm as senior counsel. While at OFAC, Martin served as the assistant director for Regulatory Affairs for two years and for over a year as chief of sanctions program implementation in the Sanctions Compliance and Evaluation Division, the firm said. As assistant U.S. attorney, Pence worked on investigations and prosecutions pertaining to export crimes, terrorism and other national security matters, it said.
Michael Parker, a former official at both the Justice and the Treasury departments, has joined Ferrari & Associates as counsel heading up the firm's money laundering and sanctions practice, the firm announced Dec. 1. Parker was previously a sanctions investigator and later a chief in the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s enforcement division before joining DOJ, where he prosecuted transnational crime and money laundering violations.
The Biden administration is likely to increase export controls and sanctions enforcement in the next few years, Gibson Dunn lawyers said during a webinar this week. They also said the administration is likely to pursue enforcement in creative ways, including sometimes through disclosures with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
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Fenwick & West will open an office in Washington, D.C., adding two partners for the new office, the firm announced on Aug. 31. Thomas Ensign and Melissa Duffy will both serve as partners in Fenwick's Antitrust and Trade Regulation practice. Duffy, who comes from Dechert, "advises on export controls, sanctions, trade policy, programs under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), regulation of emerging technologies, digital trade, CFIUS and national security issues involving U.S. agencies," Fenwick said. Ensign is an antitrust adviser on issues including intellectual property agreements, distribution arrangements and joint ventures. Fenwick, which says it concentrates on serving the technology and life sciences industries, has offices in California, New York City, Seattle and Shanghai.
A Romanian bank and its U.S. parent company were fined about $860,000 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and Syria, OFAC said in an enforcement notice. Romania-based First Bank SA processed nearly 100 transactions worth about $3.5 million through U.S. banks on behalf of sanctioned parties, the notice said. The bank continued to process transactions for Iranian customers after it was acquired by U.S.-based JC Flowers in 2018.