The U.S. and the European Union have agreed to further sanctions of Russian and Ukrainian individuals and businesses closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Financial institutions conducting business with these individuals and businesses will need to assiduously apply their CDD solutions to remain compliant.
Asserting that Russia has reneged on commitments it made to Ukraine, the U.S., and the E.U. on April 17 to refrain from further violence in eastern Ukraine, the White House announced today that the United States is imposing targeted sanctions on additional individuals and businesses, and it is restricting licenses for certain businesses that export from the U.S. to Russia.
“The Department of the Treasury is imposing sanctions on seven Russian government officials, including two members of President Putin’s inner circle, who will be subject to an asset freeze and a U.S. visa ban, and 17 companies linked to Putin’s inner circle, which will be subject to an asset freeze,” according to the White House press release. “In addition, the Department of Commerce has imposed additional restrictions on 13 of those companies by imposing a license requirement with a presumption of denial for the export, re-export or other foreign transfer of U.S.-origin items to the companies.”
The European Union also added 15 more individuals to their sanctions list. To date, the EU has named 48 Russian and Ukrainian citizens—all closely allied with Putin—to their list. The U.S. has named 45 individuals and 19 businesses to its sanctions list.
AML Partners’ CEO Frank Cummings said that sanctions of this type should not pose difficulties for U.S. institutions with effective KYC solutions and a strong OFAC screening implementation already in place. “The OFAC filtering system should allow financial institutions to implement these sanctions with ease.”
