On May 2, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments, which details more than 10 pages of long-standing OFAC practices on corporate economic sanctions compliance programs. With this publication, companies operating internationally are now on notice that compliance program elements that used to be simply “best practices” guidance will now be expected by OFAC. With the recent strengthening of certain sanctions regimes in countries such as Iran and Venezuela, the release of the guidance is both timely and telling. Companies – both U.S. and non-U.S. – conducting international business should take note and ensure their existing compliance programs include OFAC-enumerated elements.
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