Yesterday, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) held it’s second annual international trade symposium at the National Press Club. In attendance were countless OFAC officials and around 500 or so individuals with a great interest in OFAC. The event was closed to the press, which is ironic considering we were in the National Press Club, so I will not dive into direct quotes from certain officials, but I will provide some tidbits of information that stood out to me.

1. CISADA and NDAA: One of the main themes of the Symposium was how the Iran sanctions programs have evolved since the passing of the Comprehensive, Iran, Sanctions and Accountability Act of 2010 and the National Defense Authorization Act. It was acknowledged during the symposium that OFAC has never had to do what they are being asked to do now under these two pieces of legislation, so that has led to a great deal of discussion and additional work at the agency as they try to adjust to the demands of Congress and develop policies and processes to effectively implement Congress’ will.

2. OFAC TSRA Licenses:Last year OFAC received approximately 1,800 license applications under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (“TSRA”) and issued approximately 1,900 licenses under this program. I was a little bit amazed by this number and I think it’s a testament to how effective their new online license application process is. Over half of those licenses were submitted using the online system. That doesn’t take anything away from the work of Aydin Akgun & Co. in the TSRA office, they are top notch and are doing a good job over there.

3. OFAC Specific License Expedited Processing:As stated on this blog many times, and reiterated by OFAC yesterday, there is NO expedited processing guidelines for specific license applications; OFAC reviews them in order of priority. However, you may request expedited processing if you feel there is a compelling reason to do so. In the event, that you request expedited processing make sure to address the compelling reasons for such a request at the very beginning of the specific license application.

4. OFAC’s Iran Licensing Policy: During the Q&A session of the licensing panel, OFAC made it clear that there is no favorable policy in regards to licensing U.S. persons (citizens and green card holders) to either work in Iran or to buy property in Iran.

5. OFAC Iran Licensing: Also, in relation to OFAC specific license applications seeking to engage in transactions with Iran, it was stated that due to the issuance of the new sanctions, those waiting on pending license applications will have to wait some time for those licenses. The reason for this is that Iran license processing is essentially on hold for higher review until the new Iran sanctions can be fully implemented by OFAC.

6. OFAC Enforcement on the Rise: The big takeaways from the Enforcement Panel were that OFAC’s administrative subpoenas were going to be used as their primary investigative tool moving forward, that these subpoenas were going to be sent out move frequently, and that OFAC’s administrative subpoenas would be enforceable in a court of law. They also stated that OFAC will be increasing their referrals for criminal prosecution of false statements under 18 U.S.C. 1001 made in response to their subpoenas.

7. Sanctions Policy: The final panel of the day focused on current sanctions policy. One of the two key highlights was OFAC’s contention that OFAC is not actually leading the implementation of sanctions against Iran, but is merely following what the U.N. is doing in terms of sanctioning Iran. Also, it was noted that the point of sanctions is to change behavior and that OFAC is receptive to opening a dialogue with those designated parties who do seek to change their behavior and be removed from the Specially Designated Nationals list.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.