On April 17, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it would not renew an existing authorization for transactions related to oil and gas sector operations in Venezuela, and replaced the existing authorization with a 45-day wind-down period for previously authorized transactions, expiring May 31, 2024. On April 15, 2024, OFAC separately reissued a separate general license, continuing to extend prohibitions to execution on the PdVSA 2020 bond collateral.
Continue Reading OFAC Allows Venezuelan Oil and Gas Authorization to Expire and Extends Prohibitions to Execution on PdVSA 2020 Bond CollateralStatute of Limitations for U.S. Sanctions Violations Extended from Five to Ten years
By Chase D. Kaniecki & Samuel H. Chang on
On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law H.R. 815, a foreign aid bill containing a provision that doubles the statute of limitations (SoL) for civil and criminal violations of U.S. sanctions and other national security programs from five years to ten years.
Continue Reading Statute of Limitations for U.S. Sanctions Violations Extended from Five to Ten yearsUS And UK Tighten Restrictions on Trade and Use of Russian Metals
On April 12, 2024 the United States, in coordination with the United Kingdom, issued new prohibitions with respect to Russian aluminium, copper and nickel.
Continue Reading US And UK Tighten Restrictions on Trade and Use of Russian MetalsTreasury Issues Proposed Rule to Enhance CFIUS Mitigation and Enforcement
On April 11, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”), as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) that would modify and expand CFIUS’s mitigation and enforcement authority.
Continue Reading Treasury Issues Proposed Rule to Enhance CFIUS Mitigation and EnforcementCleary Gottlieb FDI Newsletter: January – March 2024
By Cleary Gottlieb on
Posted in FDI, Foreign Investment
- The European Commission proposes a revised EU FDI Screening Regulation
- EU takes time to ready Outbound Investment Control Toolkit
- German FDI reviews dropped in 2023, but FDI review activity follows the trends of prior years
- Italian FDI reviews in 2023 remained consistently high, despite the end of the extraordinary provisions enacted in connection with the Covid-19 outbreak
- UK: NSIA decisions, Telegraph Media Group public interest review, and new legislation prohibiting foreign state ownership of newspapers
- In the U.S., updates to the Critical and Emerging Technologies list signal refinement of focus for CFIUS.
Lexology Panoramic Foreign Investment Review 2024 – United States (CFIUS)
By Chase D. Kaniecki, Samuel H. Chang, William S. Dawley & B.J. Altvater on
Posted in Foreign Investment
Cleary Gottlieb partner Chase Kaniecki and associates Samuel Chang, William Dawley, and B.J. Altvater co-authored the United States chapter in Lexology Panoramic: Foreign Investment Review 2024.
Continue Reading Lexology Panoramic Foreign Investment Review 2024 – United States (CFIUS)Updates to the Critical and Emerging Technologies List Signal Refinement of Focus
By Chase D. Kaniecki & Alexi T. Stocker on
Posted in Foreign Investment, U.S.
The U.S. National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)[1] recently published an updated list of critical and emerging technologies (CETs) as part of an ongoing effort to identify advanced technologies that are potentially significant to U.S. national security. We previously summarized the February 2022 list of CETs from the NSTC here.
Continue Reading Updates to the Critical and Emerging Technologies List Signal Refinement of FocusOverall number of German FDI screenings slightly dropped in 2023, but review follows the trends of prior years
By Mirko von Bieberstein & Lukas Nigl on
The German FDI authority, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (“BMWK”), has published the German FDI screening statistics for 2023.[1]
Continue Reading Overall number of German FDI screenings slightly dropped in 2023, but review follows the trends of prior yearsImpact of Recent U.S. Secondary Sanctions Authority Targeting Foreign Financial Institutions Supporting Russia’s Military-Industrial Base
As the second anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine approaches, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom continue to focus on and tighten sanctions against Russia, with a particular emphasis on preventing circumvention and evasion of sanctions. For example, 2023 ended with several significant regulatory developments, including the EU 12th package of sanctions against Russia, discussed in our earlier alert, and new U.S. sanctions-related authority targeting foreign financial institutions (“FFIs”) supporting Russia’s military-industrial base. This update focuses on the latter development, which is a significant development for FFIs that remain engaged in business involving Russia, even if such business is undertaken outside of U.S. jurisdiction.
Continue Reading Impact of Recent U.S. Secondary Sanctions Authority Targeting Foreign Financial Institutions Supporting Russia’s Military-Industrial BaseMixed-Interventionist Approach to Cross-Jurisdictional Issues arising from Sanctions
By Cleary Gottlieb on
The English court took a mixed approach to judicial intervention in a number of cross-jurisdictional cases last year, although some further (welcome) clarity has recently been provided by the Court of Appeal. Perhaps the most salient and recent example of this has been the Court’s perceived willingness to grant Anti-Suit Injunctions (“ASIs”) to restrain foreign proceedings brought in breach of a foreign-seated arbitration clause. These recent cases have largely arisen following Russia’s 2020 amendment to Article 248 of the Arbitrazh (Commercial) Procedure Code (“2020 Amendment”), which itself was a direct policy response to Western sanctions against Russian companies and individuals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue Reading Mixed-Interventionist Approach to Cross-Jurisdictional Issues arising from Sanctions