Last week the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released new guidelines for submission of electronic documents to OFAC’s Office of Enforcement. While, OFAC’s Compliance Division handles the investigations of sanctions violations by depository institutions, OFAC’s Office of Enforcement is responsible for investigating sanctions violations that occur by parties other than depository institutions. To this end OFAC’s Office of Enforcement sends out administrative subpoenas which inquire into certain transactions and activities which may evidence violations of U.S. economic sanctions regulations administered by OFAC. Responses to OFAC administrative subpoenas usually require the submission of copious documents. Previously, OFAC required that such documents be provided in hard copy, but recently they have become much more technologically savvy and in certain cases are requiring documentation to be submitted in electronic format. The first set of guidelines governing the submission of electronic document production was released in October 2012.

Last week’s guidance changed the October 2012 guidance in only a very limited manner. The basic point of the new guidance was to provide data field requirements for paper documents and for delimited text files (.DAT). Paper documents are required to be scanned in as TIFF files, be Bates numbered, and include OCR text. These new data fields are found in Addendum #1 to the guidance. OFAC’s changes are designed to make the review of these electronic submissions, through the Concordance software, much easier. Concordance is an electronic document review software that is utilized in many large law firms, and that apparently OFAC has taken a liking to.

These guidelines are not always applicable, however. OFAC only prefers to receive electronic documents if the submission is over 500 pages in length. Moreover, if the submission is over 2,500 pages in length, then OFAC desires to see the electronic documents formatted for Concordance in the manner described in the previous and the updated guidance on submission of electronic documents. For many receiving administrative subpoenas from Treasury, this guidance is fairly irrelevant. However, larger companies coming under investigation by OFAC need to be aware of the guidance and take steps to follow the guidance.

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@ferrariassociatespc.com.