What Are OFAC’s “Secondary Sanctions” on Russia, Truly?
One concern I hear a lot from businesses outside the United States is regarding so-called “secondary sanctions” of the United States (“U.S.”), especially since the rapid expansion of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (“OFAC”) Russia-related sanctions regime beginning in February 2022. For example, a typical inquiry will be something like : “Our dealings with a Russian entity do not involve the U.S. or any U.S. persons, but what about U.S. secondary sanctions?” Unfortunately for them (and myself as a sanctions attorney), OFAC has never officially defined the term “secondary sanctions” for any of its programs, and it became an