Day 1- Wednesday, April 27, 2011
8:30 Opening Remarks from the Conference Co-Chairs
Clay Stevenson
Global Economic Sanctions Executive
Bank of America (New York, NY)
Carol Fuchs
Counsel,
International Trade Regulation
GE Corporate, International Law & Policy
General Electric (Washington, DC)
8:45 Keynote Address
Barbara C. Hammerle
Deputy Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of the Treasury (Washington, DC)
9:15 Scope of Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act of 2010 (“CiSADA”) and implementing Regulations: Status and impact on US and non-US Entities
Thomas L. Delare
Director, Office of Terrorist Finance and Economic Sanctions Policy
U.S. Department of State (Washington, DC)
David M. Stetson
Attorney-Advisor
Office of the Chief Counsel Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of the Treasury (Washington, DC)
Dennis Wood
Assistant Director, Sanctions Compliance & Evaluation
Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of the Treasury (Washington, DC)
- Impact of CISADA on US and non-US financial institutions, insurers, reinsurers and exporters: Expanded types of activities and “investments” that are captured
- How CISADA affects companies that are NOT active in the petroleum sector
- Update on current and pending regulations by OFAC and FinCEN
- How CISADA has and will affect OFAC’s global sanctions enforcement, and the interaction between OFAC and the State Department
- How the State Department will target and assess companies investing in the Iran petroleum sector: What can trigger new CISADA penalties, denial of banking privileges or foreign exchange transactions, and asset freezing
- Complying with the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations:
- defining “knowingly” and “prohibited activities”
- determining whether financial transactions or services are “significant”
- Correspondent banking, audit and due diligence requirements under section 104(e) of CISADA
- Minimizing a parent company’s exposure for foreign subsidiary/affiliate violations: When a parent “knew or should have known” of an attempted or actual violation
10:15 Networking Coffee Break
10:30 Screening and Re-Screening Your Customers and Transactions: OFAC and industry guidance on Required Scope, Frequency and Resource Allocation
Alexandre Manfull
Chief of Compliance Implementation,
Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of the Treasury (Washington, DC)
Christine Arrata
Head of Global Sanctions Compliance
The Bank of New York Mellon (New York, NY)
Albert V. DeLeon
Head of Compliance Advisory and Monitoring
Zurich Financial (New York, NY)
Lisa Palluconi
Counsel, Governmental Programs
IBM Corporation (Washington, DC)
- Who you need to screen, and when
- How often you need to re-screen existing customers and US-based transactions
- Evaluating the effectiveness of your transaction monitoring to upgrade screening capabilities
- What to do once a hit is discovered, and when to contact OFAC
- Resolving false positives
- How up-to-date is the OFAC list, and when to screen against other lists to reduce risk:
- Differences between various vendor lists and how to select them
- Tailoring a screening program to the size and customer/product volume of your organization
- Expected scope of resources to allocate for screening
- Implementing screening software and other tools
11:30 Reducing Facilitation Risks Affecting Multinational Transactions: Case Studies on How to identify, Assess and Minimize the Threat of Violations
Matthew Tuchband
Deputy Chief Counsel
Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of Treasury (Washington, DC)
Sara L. Satten
Senior Vice President, OFAC Officer and Deputy BSA Officer
Wells Fargo & Co (San Francisco, CA)
Greta Lichtenbaum
Partner,
O’Melveny & Myers LLP (Washington, DC)
- Scope of “facilitation” and “evasion” prohibitions
- OFAC guidance: Lessons learned from enforcement cases and advisory opinions
- Facilitation risks in connection with related parties, foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures
- Detecting and mitigating facilitation risks in your supply chain, corporate structure, human resources, and IT
- Managing facilitation challenges with joint venture partners, including where a minority interest exists
- Effective controls to implement toward identifying and assessing facilitation risks: Facilitation risks in connection with unrelated non-U.S. parties
- Remaining compliant while working with non-U.S. companies with ties to sanctioned countries, including vendors and customers
- Implementing and monitoring policies and procedures, including key elements of effective recusal policies
12:30 networking luncheon
1:45 Optimizing the Effectiveness of Your global Sanctions Compliance Program: Critical Updates in light of Recent US legislative & Regulatory Changes
Kevin Willis
Vice President,
International Trade Compliance
Tyco International Ltd. (Princeton, NJ)
Molly McLane
Global Economic Sanctions Counsel
Morgan Stanley (New York, NY)
Dale C. Turza– Panel Moderator
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP (Washington, DC)
- Core program components for financial institutions, insurers, reinsurers and exporters based on the Final Guidelines, CISADA and implementing regulations
- Updating your compliance policies and procedures
- Tailoring the program to your industry’s risk areas
- Training your US vs. non-US employees: Successful approaches to fostering compliance awareness
- Evaluating your employees’ understanding of sanctions risks and procedures
- Designating managerial and governance responsibilities, and optimizing cost-efficiency
- Monitoring foreign operations and employees to ensure continued compliance
2:45 Incorporating Tightened EU Sanctions into Your global Compliance Strategy: Contrasting EU and OFAC Restrictions
Rae Lindsay
Partner,
Clifford Chance LLP (London, UK)
Carol Fuchs
Counsel, International Trade Regulation
GE Corporate, International Law & PolicyGeneral Electric (Washington, DC)
- Contrasting EU sanctions against Iran vs. CISADA
- Scope of EU restrictions on domestic and foreign entities, transactions, equipment and technology supporting Iran’s petroleum industry
- restrictions on trade, investment and financial activities
- transactions that are excluded from the scope of EU sanctions
- pre-existing arrangements that are “grandfathered” under EU regulations
- “designated persons” whose funds have been frozen
- Securing EU approvals: When and how to seek approval for transferring funds to and from Iranian persons, entities or bodies, and when approvals are not required
- Who, what and how often to screen amid tightened EU sanctions, including beneficial owners and corporate board members
- Reconciling OFAC screening requirements with EU data privacy laws: When EU data privacy authorities will grant waivers and allow for the use of exceptions
- How comprehensive is the EU list vs. OFAC SDN list
3:30 Networking Coffee Break
3:45 Responding to OFAC Enforcement investigations and Subpoenas: How OFAC interprets “Cooperation” and Assesses Penalties against Regulated Financial institutions
Jonathan Thomas
Senior Compliance Review Coordinator
Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of Treasury (Washington, DC)
Alan Sorcher
Senior Manager,
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (New York, NY)
John B. Reynolds
Partner,
Wiley Rein LLP (Washington, DC)
- What triggers an investigation by OFAC vs. the requirement to conduct an internal investigation• What an investigation entails, and what OFAC looks for
- What OFAC expects for “cooperation”, and what has been viewed as “uncooperative”: What is a “misrepresentation” or “omission” of a material fact
- Preparing for the investigation: Defining the role of senior management during the investigation, and preparing company officials for interviews
- Protecting attorney-client privilege: When and how to assert privilege
- How OFAC is exercising its administrative subpoena authority, and why OFAC has increased usage of subpoenas
- Narrowing the scope of a subpoena through negotiation with OFAC
- Responding to an OFAC subpoena: Do’s and don’ts
- When a postponement/extension to a subpoena response can be granted, and how subpoenas impact the investigative timeframe
4:45 Tailoring Contractual Clauses to Your Sanctions Risk level: Effective Representations, Warranties, Exclusion and Other Key Clauses
Mary Rand
Assistant Vice President, Anti-Money Laundering
AXA Equitable (Syracuse, NY)
Eric J. Kadel, Jr.
Partner,
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (Washington, DC)
- Conducting an effective risk assessment to determine the required scope of sanctions-related provisions
- How CISADA impacts pre-existing contracts and ongoing customer relationships
- How representations and warranties are being expanded in light of CISADA, and new ones to include going forward
- When to bring up sanctions compliance at the negotiation stage, and what to do when a party refuses to accept OFAC restrictions
- What OFAC expects for the use of exclusion clauses, and their degree of effectiveness
- Weighing the impact of indemnity clauses on your potential exposure: Evaluating the interrelation between all contractual provisions to ensure proper risk allocation
- Best practices for customer account agreements, correspondent banking agreements, joint ventures and distribution agreements
- Determining whether key provisions can be properly implemented and monitored
- When to include contractual audit rights, and how to exercise them
5:30 Conference Adjourns
Day 2- Thursday, April 28, 2011
8:30 Opening Remarks from the Co-Chairs
8:35 Conducting Effective internal investigations in the US and Abroad: Fine Tuning Your Approach to Address Sanctions-Specific Risks and Conflict of Laws
N. Michael Boriboon
Senior Vice President,
Reporting Investigations & Licensing
Global Sanctions Compliance
Citigroup Inc. (Washington, DC)
Natalia Shehadeh
Director,
Trade Compliance Group
Weatherford International (Houston, TX)
Alison Clew
Principal
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP (Boston, MA)
- Deciding whether and when to investigate, and to what degree
- Who should conduct the investigation: Roles of in-house compliance and legal groups vs. outside counsel and forensic accountants
- How an OFAC-related investigation differs from an AML investigation
- Working with IT and other internal departments: Communicating and executing comprehensive requests to technical groups
- Conducting an internal investigation involving a foreign subsidiary or affiliate
- reconciling investigative objectives with foreign privacy laws and blocking statutes
- collecting and preserving documents in and outside of the US
- When to call OFAC, and when OFAC will take over the investigation
- Investigative findings: Resolving a legitimate hit with OFAC
- When and how to do a voluntary disclosure
- Identifying and implementing remedial measures, including tightened systems and targeted training
9:45 Updating Your Risk Profile in Response to Product and Operational Changes: Adjusting OFAC Compliance Policies and Procedures to Your Evolving global Business
Clay Stevenson
Global Economic Sanctions Executive
Bank of America (New York, NY)
Louis Lisowski
International Trade Counsel
Baker Hughes (Houston, TX)
Ronald I. Meltzer
Partner,
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (Washington, DC)
- How new products, lines of business and changing organization size could affect your existing risk profile
- When and how often to re-evaluate your risk profile: Frequency and scope of internal reviews
- Key factors to consider when assessing risks in connection with changing operations, products, location or personnel
- How outsourcing functions can impact your risk profile
- Addressing changes in customer base and international payment flows
- When sourcing of new product lines will require an overhead of your risk profile
- Updating your compliance policies and procedures in response to a revised risk profile
10:45 Networking Coffee Break
11:00 OFAC investigations, Penalties and Settlements for non-Regulated Entities and individuals: Mitigating and Aggravating Factors impacting Calculations and Credits
Thomas P. Feddo
Acting Associate Director for Enforcement Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of Treasury (Washington, DC)
Judith Lee
Partner,
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Washington, DC)
- OFAC’s enforcement approach to “big ticket” vs. “middle ground” cases
- How OFAC is applying the Enforcement Guidelines against exporters and individuals: Mitigating and aggravating factors impacting OFAC penalty amounts and settlement agreements
- To what extent voluntary and directed disclosures result in reduced penalties
- Maximizing credits under the Enforcement Guidelines
- Documenting the steps/measures taken by your organization toward maximizing credits
- How OFAC is treating conflict of law challenges when assessing liability
11:45 Reconciling Cuba Sanctions with Canadian and EU Blocking Measures: Safeguards to implement for Your Employees and Transactions
Deborah Taub
Director,
AML Compliance, Global Anti-Money Laundering Compliance
Royal Bank of Canada (Toronto, Canada)
Jamie L. Boucher
Partner
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Washington, DC)
- Key conflicts between blocking measures in the EU, Mexico and Canada, and U.S. trade control requirements
- How EU and Canada have been enforcing blocking measures
- Impact of midterm elections on further liberalization efforts
- Applying general licensing requirements, and trends in OFAC license approvals
- What items are eligible under the EAR license exception
- What to do when foreign blocking measures are triggered: Protections to implement for your employees and transactions
- When you need to freeze and report shares held by pre-revolutionary Cuban companies
- Complying with limitations on family remittances and payments by Cuban Nationals
12:30 Securing OFAC licenses and Advisory Opinions: The Approvals Timeframe and Criteria Affecting OFAC Decision-Making
Andrea Gacki Assistant
Director for Licensing
Office of Foreign Assets Control
U.S. Department of the Treasury (Washington, DC)
Aleksandar Dukic
Partner
Hogan Lovells LLP (Washington, DC)
- Expected timeframe for OFAC responses, and how to obtain a status update regarding your application
- What OFAC has seen in terms of licensing pitfalls and application errors: Where approvals are dropping
- Types of transactions OFAC will license
- Key elements to include in your license application
- Interplay between the State Department and OFAC, and the impact on the approvals timeframe
- Using OFAC’s hotline regarding transactions in progress
- When and how to seek an advisory opinion: Pros and cons
- When to request a license in the alternative to an advisory opinion
1:15 Conference Concludes
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