Opening Remarks from Conference Co-Chairs

Roundtable Discussion on the Trump Administration and Sanctions: First Three Months in Review

There is a great deal of uncertainty within the Sanctions Community following the election in November and the change of direction the new Administration is taking. Three months into the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President in the United States, this panel will seek to dissect and analyze the policy changes and announcements that have occurred thus far and what they might mean for sanctions compliance and enforcement in the over the next four years. This will include a detailed look at how Sanctions programs are put into place (and lifted) on Capitol Hill and will ask what will (or will not) be possible for the new President and his administration in respect of changing to the various programs. Some of the topics likely to be addressed include the following; however, this list is likely to be updated as we move closer to the conference, so check online for the latest developments:

• Will the Russia-related sanctions be repealed or will Congress be able to bind them? What does the February 2017 ‘limited exceptions’ for exporters mean in practice?
• Iran: how feasible is it to re-impose? To what extent can and will the Administration slow them down?
• Will Obama’s Executive Order on Sudan be repealed?
• What does Trump’s “business first” principles mean for Cuba? Will there be pressure on the island to give more if there is to be further liberalization?
• How will Europe react and what a increasingly divergent US/EU paradigm mean for your business

Extended Panel on Iran and Russia: What is Currently Permissible under Both US and EU Regimes, and Strategies for Minimizing Risks as the US Weighs the Future of JCPOA

• Is the Iran program is working as planned?
  • FDI into Iran: how does financing actually occur under the program
  • How are companies navigating due diligence, eg. how do you decide if there is an IRGC connection?
  • Are US companies able to effectively use General License H?
  • Foreign subsidiaries of US Companies: what authorizations actually allow them to do and why is there so much confusion?
• Russia analysis:
  • What are the compliance challenges in administering sectoral sanctions?
  • What issues do US companies with operations in Russia actually face?
  • To what extent are the US and EU in sync and challenges and pitfalls of navigating both programs

Networking Break

Economic Sanctions Year in Review: Agencies Speak on Enforcement and Regulatory Priorities

This is your chance to hear Senior Government Officials from OFAC as well as the US Departments of Justice and Commerce review the past year’s major enforcement priorities and sanctions program changes, and offer their insights into the coming year.  

• Gain insight on lessons learned from actions agencies have taken
• Learn how best to co-operate with agencies, including on Voluntary Self-Disclosures
• Find out how cases are built and how agencies co-ordinate with each other
• How are agencies are going to continue to enforce Iran-related violations and what you need to know to avoid common pitfalls
• Navigating the changes that have taken place in the main OFAC programs

Moot Court on the 50% Rule and How to Interpret Ownership and Control

Brand new for the Advanced Forum on Economic Sanctions, ACI’s unique Moot Court format addresses one of the biggest sources of contention for Sanctions practitioners: how to apply OFAC’s 50% rule and the wider issue of determining ownership and control. The Moot Court will hear three separate imagined cases that illustrate the issues and pitfalls on this topic, with leading members of the Sanctions bar taking on opposing arguments before ACI’s Moot Court Judge. The audience will have the opportunity to play the role of “jury”, with polling taken on voting devices at the end of each imagined scenario.   Scenarios to include:

• A U.S. company is seeking to form a joint venture in Russia with an entity that is owned by a consortium of privately-owned investment firms, which are unwilling to share information on the identities of their beneficial owners and their relative ownership interests
• A French subsidiary of a U.S. company is seeking to sell products to a BVI-incorporated entity operating in Malta, which information in the public domain suggests is 49 percent owned by an Iranian entity on OFAC’s SDN list and 51 percent owned by two individual Iranian national investors, one of whom resides in Iran, the other of whom resides in Malta and plays the role of Managing Director for the company
• A Russian entity seeking to invest in real estate in the United States is 40 percent owned by an entity on the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications list, 40 percent owned by an entity on the SDN list, and 20 percent owned by the daughter of an individual on the SDN list

Networking Lunch

Special Interest Group (“SIG”) Lunches for

• Technology & Telecoms
• Extractive Industries
• Consumer & Manufactured Goods
• Financial Services

Keynote Address

Cocktail Reception Sponsored by: Willkie Farr

Opening Remarks from Co-Chairs

Regulators’ Townhall Q&A: Your Chance to Ask Questions to OFAC, BIS and the DOJ on Main Issues Affecting Industry

Speakers will answer questions and comments from the audience in a moderated discussion. Participants will be contacted in advance of the event to suggest comments and questions for discussion, and there will also be time reserved for live audience Q&A. Questions can be submitted in advance of the conference to [email protected]

Interactive Debate on the Value of Voluntary Self- Disclosures (VSDs): How to Best Co-Operate with the Regulators and How to Weigh VSD Value Further to Recent DOJ Guidance

• What does the DOJ do in the context of the FCPA, and how does this compare with the National Security Division’s “For Export” Controls and Sanctions Compliance? What lessons can be drawn from this when analyzing OFAC’s enforcement guidelines?
• Debate on the role and significance of the Yates memo: what actually is the policy and its implications for VSDs
• What are the implications of dual disclosure requirements (Administrative/Civil authorities vs DOJ)? Does this have a bearing on the value of undertaking a VSD?

Networking Break

The Most Common Mistakes that Companies Make when Conducting Investigations into Sanctions Violations

• What are the implications of not properly protecting your internal investigation with attorney-client privilege?
• How mistakes in defining the scope in the investigation in the beginning (too broad vs too narrow) can lead to problems down the line
• Lessons learned from recent enforcement actions: how not to repeat the same mistakes

Recent Developments in EU & UK Sanctions and Enforcement and Exploring the Differences in Risk Management and Compliance

• Iran, Russia and Cuba: what are the major differences between the US and EU programs with respect to the ‘big three’ sanctioned jurisdictions
• How enforcement authorities work in the EU and what the differing approach means for multinational compliance solutions?
• How are European authorities likely to react to changes across the Atlantic if the Trump administration takes a new direction with respect to sanctions?
• What consequences does Brexit have for the UK’s sanctions programs and what direction is the newly established Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) at the UK Treasury likely to go on enforcement?
• What have been recent legal developments and litigation relating to EU and UK sanctions?

How to Achieve Company-Wide Risk Management Excellence: Integrating Sanctions Compliance Controls with AML Compliance

• Consequences for US and non-US workflows: distinctions for what US and non-US persons can do
• Conflict of laws issues: what to do when US persons are obligated to do something under local law
• Choosing which standards to follow when designing programs

Networking Lunch

Special Interest Group (“SIG”) Lunches for

• Technology & Telecoms
• Extractive Industries
• Consumer & Manufactured Goods
• Financial Services

Where Financial Services Providers and Issuers are at their Most Vulnerable: Focus and Priorities of Non-OFAC Enforcement and What the BIS and SEC are Looking For

• Inside recent SEC and BIS sanctions enforcement actions: main targets and lessons learned about what can trigger an investigation
• What compliance-focused strategies firms should implement order to minimize their exposure
• What scrutiny are Financial Institutions facing from other regulatory bodies?
• How do regulators work together on sanctions investigations?

Cuba Update: What is Actually Feasible in Reality for US Companies and What Has Changed with the New Administration

• How to navigate the interplay between the Commerce Department and OFAC
• Deep Dive into the series of expansions of what is permissible: perspectives from medical device and energy industries
• Did the liberalizations really open the door to Cuba for US companies and their foreign affiliates?
• What lessons can be learned from the practical challenges of doing business in Cuba which play into the sanctions and export controls risk analysis?

Networking Break

Cyber, Counternarcotic/Kingpin Act and other Sanctioned Geographies: Status Update on other OFAC Jurisdictional Programs

• Assessment of compliance risks with respect to the Cyber-related sanctions program and evaluation of developments under the Trump Administration
• Impact of the Kingpin Act on doing business, especially in Central and South America: “up tooling” your compliance program to minimize sanctions risks
• General License on Sudan: how best to explore business opportunities but remain fully sanctions compliant further to the lifting of restrictions
• Myanmar: what is now feasible in practice after the termination of the program, and potential pitfalls
• Update on other jurisdictional programs: why questions on jurisdictions such as Syria, Venezuela, Belarus and North Korea are still arising

Demystifying “Facilitation”: Test Your Knowledge with Practical Scenarios of What Is Permitted

• Changing nature of the Iran program: now that authorizations for subsidiaries of US persons are permitted, what could a US person still be “facilitating”
• Aviation, healthcare and other industries: where is the facilitation risk in common industry scenarios?
• Crimea sectorial sanctions: what can defense, banking and energy players do to ensure they are not engaging in prohibited facilitation of activities with respect to medium and long-term financings?

Closing Remarks and Main Conference Ends