OFAC extends deadline for dealings in EN+ Group, RUSAL and GAZ Group

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) has issued a new Ukraine/Russia-related General License 13C, which replaces and supersedes General License 13B (31 July).

The new licence extends the expiry of the general licence issued to allow US persons to divest or transfer debt, equity or other holdings in companies including EN+ Group, RUSAL and GAZ Group from 5 August to 23 October 2018.

The licence also covers transactions involving holdings where the sanctioned parties have an indirect or direct ownership of 50% or more.

The Russian companies were impacted by targeted US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska in April in response to the ‘malign activity’ of the Russian state, including meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Deripaska was until recently president of RUSAL and EN+ Group and is a significant stakeholder in GAZ Group.  OFAC has also updated its FAQs to refer to the new licence.

General License 13C can be found here:
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/ukraine_gl13c.pdf

OFAC’s FAQs can be found here:
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Pages/faq_other.aspx#570