Over the last several months, Venezuela’s interim government has moved swiftly to reopen the country’s oil sector to private investment, amending the Organic Hydrocarbons Law and enacting implementing regulations just last week. There is little doubt that the reformed law includes many positive changes to encourage new investment: it ends PDVSA’s decades-long monopoly on primary oil activities, lowers the state’s minimum ownership stake in joint ventures, and formalizes a new contractual framework (CPPs) expected to be the primary vehicle for new investment. The regulations include a more streamlined fiscal regime, including a royalty ceiling of 30%, and a simplified integrated hydrocarbons tax capped at 15%, replacing the prior multi-layered tax structure.
Continue Reading Venezuela’s Oil Reform Efforts: New Opportunities, Unanswered Questions – U.S. Investor PerspectiveEnforcement
U.S. Government Removes Syria From List of State Sponsors of Terrorism
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On July 8, 2026, President Trump informed Congress of his administration’s intent to rescind Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SST), giving Congress the requisite 45-day pre-notification period. The rescission of Syria’s SST designation is one of the final steps in the rollback of financial and other trade restrictions against Syria following President Trump’s June 30, 2025 Executive Order revoking executive orders that imposed sanctions and export restrictions on Syria, and directing the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of Commerce to ease trade and finance restrictions on Syria. Syria’s designation as an SST is set to expire following a 45-day mandatory congressional review period, absent formal opposition from Congress.
Continue Reading U.S. Government Removes Syria From List of State Sponsors of TerrorismU.S. Department of Agriculture Takes Next Step to Modernize AFIDA Filing Requirements and Strengthen Enforcement
By Chase D. Kaniecki, B.J. Altvater, Ryan Brown & Philip Bishara on
On June 25, 2026, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a proposed rule (the Proposed Rule) that would significantly expand the scope and enforcement of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA), which requires foreign persons who acquire, transfer, or hold interests in U.S. agricultural land to report those transactions and holdings to USDA. The Proposed Rule would broaden what qualifies as “agricultural land,” lower the ownership thresholds that trigger reporting, impose a new tiered penalty structure with heightened consequences for foreign adversaries, and transfer oversight of the program to USDA’s Office of Homeland Security (OHS), reflecting a broader shift in the U.S. government’s treatment of AFIDA as a national security tool rather than a purely agricultural data-collection exercise. The Proposed Rule follows a December 2025 Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and is informed by recommendations from a 2024 Government Accountability Office review, congressional directives in recent appropriations legislation, including a requirement that USDA share AFIDA data with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to support reviews of transactions that may raise national security concerns, and principles articulated in USDA’s 2025 National Farm Security Action Plan.
Continue Reading U.S. Department of Agriculture Takes Next Step to Modernize AFIDA Filing Requirements and Strengthen EnforcementDoD Proposes Expanding Foreign Ownership Screening Beyond Classified Contracts
By Chase D. Kaniecki, B.J. Altvater & Ryan Brown on
Posted in Enforcement, U.S.
On May 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) published a proposed rule (the Proposed Rule) that would, for the first time, require companies performing unclassified work for DoD to disclose whether they are subject to foreign ownership, control, or influence (FOCI), a screening process that historically has been required primarily for contractors with access to classified information.[1] DoD estimates that the Proposed Rule would affect an estimated 37,740 contractors and subcontractors. The Proposed Rule would implement statutory mandates under the National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs) for Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021, as well as elements of a 2024 DoD policy instruction on FOCI risk mitigation.[2] Comments on the Proposed Rule are due on July 6, 2026.
Continue Reading DoD Proposes Expanding Foreign Ownership Screening Beyond Classified ContractsOFAC Authorizes Commercial Negotiations With the Government of Venezuela and Certain Financial Services
On April 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued two new General Licenses (GL), GLs 56 and 57, authorizing commercial negotiations with the Government of Venezuela (GoV) and the provision of a broad range of ordinary-course financial services involving the Venezuelan central bank and three state-controlled banks or GoV individual employees and affiliates.
Continue Reading OFAC Authorizes Commercial Negotiations With the Government of Venezuela and Certain Financial ServicesCleary Gottlieb Comments on CFIUS Known Investor Program and Process Streamlining
By Chase D. Kaniecki, B.J. Altvater & Ryan Brown on
The Cleary Gottlieb CFIUS team submitted a comment on March 18, 2026 in response to the Request for Information (RFI) issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), as chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), regarding a new Known Investor Program and ways to make CFIUS’s foreign investment review process more efficient. The comment is available here. Drawing on our experience advising foreign investors and U.S. businesses across a wide range of investor profiles, transaction structures, and industry sectors, we offer practical, experience-based observations aimed at assisting CFIUS in developing the Known Investor Program into a workable, broadly available program that fosters foreign direct investment into the United States while protecting national security. Our comments are offered in the spirit of the RFI’s stated goals of increasing efficiencies in the CFIUS process to facilitate investment from allies and partners while preserving the rigor of the national security review.[1]
Continue Reading Cleary Gottlieb Comments on CFIUS Known Investor Program and Process StreamliningOFAC Lifts Belarus Sovereign Debt Ban, Eases Sanctions on Belarusian Potash Sector
On March 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) rescinded Directive 1 under Executive Order (E.O.) 14038, which had prohibited transactions in Belarusian sovereign debt with maturity of longer than 90 days issued since December 2, 2021. In parallel with the rescission of Directive 1, OFAC issued General License (GL) 14, authorizing transactions involving the Belarussian Bank of Development and Reconstruction Belinvestbank Joint Stock Company (Belinvestbank), among other entities. OFAC also removed several significant Belarusian potash sector entities from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List).
Continue Reading OFAC Lifts Belarus Sovereign Debt Ban, Eases Sanctions on Belarusian Potash SectorOFAC Expands Authorized Activities in Venezuelan Mining Sector
On March 27, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amended an existing General License (GL) and issued two new GLs authorizing new activity in Venezuela’s mining and minerals sectors. Since January 2026, the U.S. government has issued a series of general licenses authorizing sector- or activity-specific dealings relating to Venezuela under specified conditions. GLs 51A, 54, and 55 extend this framework — previously primarily focused on the oil and gas sector — to Venezuela’s minerals sector, including gold.
Continue Reading OFAC Expands Authorized Activities in Venezuelan Mining SectorNSD Flags Its Role as the Front Door for National Security-Related Voluntary Self-Disclosures Under the New Department-Wide Corporate Enforcement Policy
On March 30, 2026, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division (NSD) issued a press release reinforcing that companies seeking to voluntarily self-disclose criminal violations of national security laws—including export control and sanctions laws, and foreign investment and foreign telecommunication laws—should report those disclosures directly to NSD.[1] The announcement follows the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) March 10, 2026 release of its first-ever Department-wide Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP), which established a unified framework for how DOJ evaluates corporate voluntary self-disclosures, cooperation, and remediation across all DOJ components, except the Antitrust Division.[2]
Continue Reading NSD Flags Its Role as the Front Door for National Security-Related Voluntary Self-Disclosures Under the New Department-Wide Corporate Enforcement PolicyOFAC Issues GL 52, Further Loosening Sanctions Against PdVSA
On March 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License (GL) 52, authorizing certain transactions involving Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), or any entity in which PdVSA owns, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest (collectively, PdVSA Entities) by an established U.S. entity.[1] Concurrently with GL 52, OFAC issued two new Venezuela-related Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing key aspects of GL 52. Since January 2026, the U.S. government has issued a series of general licenses authorizing sector- or activity-specific dealings relating to Venezuela (including PdVSA Entities) under specified conditions. This latest general license represents a further step by the U.S. government to encourage investment in Venezuelan oil production, as part of a broader effort to expand Venezuela’s production and export capacity.[2]
Continue Reading OFAC Issues GL 52, Further Loosening Sanctions Against PdVSA