Economic and trade sanctions and embargoes are an ever-increasing part of the global regulatory landscape. With rising political tensions currently it’s a hot compliance topic for most multinationals. We have experience of advising on different sanctions regimes, notably those in the UK and the EU and our understanding of the way the EU works and the political climate in Russia and Eastern Europe helps us help clients plan.
Historically there’s been a focus on embargoes on the trade, import and export of arms, goods or raw materials, or, financial restrictions on individuals, bodies and associated entities or companies. The current political climate means that sanctions have an impact on more and more corporations and impact their daily business.
For many companies this is something new. Because sanctions pose a significant business risk with the possibility of severe penalties for infringement, companies should implement adequate compliance measures and checks with regard to their dealings with parties in target countries.
Example of recent projects include:
- Sanctions awareness training
- Due diligence exercise on behalf of a company concerned about a possible investor
- Working with Russian counsel to understand the Russian sanctions regime and provide advice on comparisons between the Russian regime and the EU regime.
We can assist and advise your business to ensure sanctions compliance. Where relevant, we can mobilise LexisNexis UK’s content and technology to assist including searching public records and news reports with our enhanced due diligence products. Using this we can undertake due diligence on vendors and individuals and advise accordingly. We can monitor and report on ongoing developments and also use our specialist knowledge to help you predict where the next wave of sanctions might fall. We can draft internal company sanctions policy including screening requirements. Last but not least, we can review and advise on contractual terms.
We also have experience of helping our clients deal with false positives by providing them with assurance that individuals flagged up as a risk are not in fact the ones featuring on sanctions lists.