U.S. companies will have a hard time trying to identify which companies they’d better not deal with to comply with Washington’s sanctions against Russian officials and businessmen over Moscow’s alleged role in the Ukraine crisis.
“Some of the people and entities on the new lists of sanctions, part of the U.S. government's effort to pressure Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, have extensive connections to other companies in countries throughout the world. That poses hurdles for American companies, which are restricted in doing business with some companies owned by those that are blacklisted,” reads the post by Dow Jones Business News.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. has put 50 entities and 57 individuals on the new Russia and Ukraine sanctions lists since March. “But those 107 parties hold ownership stakes or potentially exercise control of thousands of other companies around the globe, sometimes indirectly, according to the database,” runs the report authored by Rachel Louise Ensign.
“Companies with ownership or management ties to those lists can be found in more than 70 countries around the world, including the U.S., according to data compiled by Dow Jones Risk & Compliance. News Corp's Dow Jones Inc., which owns the Risk & Compliance database, is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal,” she says.
The targets of the recent sanctions own companies "all over the world," said Judith Lee, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. That is a change from the other sanctions regimes, which have generally focused on targets that are more isolated from the global business community, she said.
"It's really hard to comply with the Russian sanctions," the report quotes Judith Lee, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, as saying.
Among the businesses with ties to people and entities on Russia and Ukraine sanctions lists are a Finland-based shipbuilder and a Pennsylvania titanium company.
“Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Inc., a Finland-based builder of Arctic icebreaking ships, is 50%-owned by Russia'sUnited Shipbuilding Corp., which works with partner STX Finland Oy, according to its website and the Dow Jones data. Americans and American companies were barred in July from doing business with the Russian state company and, because of the size of the Russian stake, would also be barred from dealings with Arctech Helsinki,” reads the report.
Sources: http://www.nasdaq.com
Author: Mikhail Vesely