OFAC issues extension of Ukraine-related General Licenses

Financial Crimes OFAC Department of Treasury Ukraine Sanctions

On November 9, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the issuance of Ukraine-related General Licenses (GL) 13G, 14C, 15B, and 16C, which amend previous licenses related to permissible wind-down transactions that otherwise would be prohibited by Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations with respect to the subject entities. OFAC extended the expiration dates of the licenses from December 12 to January 7, 2019, while reviewing the sanctioned entities’ proposed “substantial corporate governance changes” that may result in significant changes in their control.

GL 13G supersedes GL 13F and authorizes, among other things, activities “ordinarily incident and necessary” to (i) divest or transfer debt, equity, or other holdings in the specified blocked entities to a non-U.S. person; or (ii) facilitate the transfers of debt, equity, or other holdings in those entities by a non-U.S. person to another non-U.S. person. GL 14C, which supersedes GL 14B, relates to specific wind-down activities involving a Russian aluminum producer sanctioned last April as previously covered by InfoBytes here. GL 15B and GL 16C supersede GL 15A and GL 16B, respectively, and authorize permissible activities relating to the maintenance or wind-down of operations, contracts, and agreements with designated entities and subsidiaries that were effective prior to April 6.

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