OFAC related legal matters and legal assistance

OFAC is a short term for the Office of Foreign Assets Control. It is an agency that works under US Department of Treasury. It administers and enforces economic trade sanctions. These sanctions are based on foreign policy of United States. These sanctions are based on National security goals against those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These sanctions are imposed against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists and international narcotics traffickers and other threats to the national security. OFAC agency acts under Presidential national emergency powers. It holds holds authority granted by specific legislation to impose controls or bans on transactions. It holds authority to freeze assets under US jurisdiction.

SDN list also known as the Specially Designated Nationals List is administered by this agency. The agency is responsible to maintain, update and publish the list. SDN list includes names of individuals and organizations with which/whom United States citizens and permanent residents are prohibited from doing business. If in case any entity or individual is mistakenly-placed on the SDN list, it can petition OFAC to reconsider. This does not mean a simple application or request form will work. They are not actually required to remove an individual or entity from the SDN list. The process of OFAC SDN list removal is typical. It is actually a serious matter. Court may or may not approve to get the name removed from the OFAC SDN List. A proper legal procedure, court-trials are conducted. Such matters may take longer and longer time to get resolved. A person involved in such matters must seek immediate legal assistance from expert solicitor or lawyer.

Hiring an expert lawyer will help a person to get out of this situation. As lawyers are experts, they are professionals and dealing with the same several cases on regular basis, they understand how to take proceedings further and what to follow in order to get the OFAC SDN List Removal. There are online web-portals maintained by legal law firms. They offer legal assistance to all people involved in such matters. There are expert attorneys and lawyers to handle client’s case. They provide assistance right from beginning to end. Meanwhile, clients need to have patience and co-operate with their lawyers completely.

Get Your Name Removed From OFAC SDN List

OFAC is an agency that works under the United States Department of the Treasury. It stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control. This agency works to administer a list of persons & organizations engaged in activities of terrorism and detrimental to United States. OFAC maintains that list that carries all names and details of such persons and organizations which is called OFAC SDN List. SDN here stands for Specially Designated National. The list having names and details of such persons may be individuals or corporate bodies/ entities. The evidence in support of OFAC’s decision is often unavailable to those who seek removal. Many times, one finds themselves on the SDN list and they have no idea as to what they have done wrong and why they have been added to this list. Having a name listed in SDN list by OFAC is a serious matter. If a person is designated in the list that there can be crippling effects; how! Let’s understand! A designated person not only will lose access to its assets under U.S. jurisdiction but will also be denied to access the U.S. financial systems. And, US citizens will not be able to engage in any kind of transaction with a SDN listed person. And, if someone is found not following these sanctions, the person doing so will be placed in the list as well can have consequences such as multi-million dollar fines and up to twenty years in imprisonment.

Mistakenly, or unfortunately is anyone has been placed on the SDN list, they then need to seek legal assistance to get their name removed from the list. And, often, most of them are confused as how to challenge the designation. There is no doubt that the procedure is typically complex and situation is extremely serious! Many people even do not have basic knowledge about OFAC related matters such as what the sanctions are, who is responsible to issue or impose them, and who enforces them etc.

The best and only way to get SDN list removal is to approach and hire professional attorneys or lawyers for legal assistance. The process of challenging such designations can be long and arduous as well. So better to leave work on attorneys or lawyers to handle in the best possible way and get the name removed from SDN list. A client needs to be true to his lawyer or attorney! A client needs to share every, even tiniest information with lawyer or attorney! A client needs to be patient because such legal matters may take long to longer and longest time to get resolved! The process involves:

• Counsel must understand and learn every aspect of the designated person’s financial activities and his/her business relationships.
• Then comes, a discovery process required to uncover evidence to support the arguments as to why the designated person should be removed.
• Then Petition for Review which is also known as a Request for Reconsideration. 

As the procedure is very much complex and typical, hiring expert and extremely knowledgeable lawyer becomes most important.
           

Complex legal matters related to OFAC

Understand about OFAC

Some very frequent questions pop up in mind of person involving in OFAC related matters! Matters related to OFAC are very complex and serious. However, not a random person can handle such legal matters, a professional lawyer or attorney can only do that. One should have some sort of information about it, so, let’s understand some basic but important information about OFAC.

The very first question is ‘What is OFAC and what does it do?’ Well, it stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control. It administers and enforces economic sanctions programs primarily against countries and groups of individuals, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers. The sanctions can be either comprehensive or selective, using the blocking of assets and trade restrictions to accomplish foreign policy and national security goals. It has been around prior to the war of 1812. The agency maintains and publishes a list known as OFAC SDN, which is Special Designated List. This list consists of names of persons, groups, bodies/ organizations involved in activities of terrorism.

What does ‘prohibited transactions’ mean?

The trade or financial transactions and other dealings in which U.S. persons may not engage unless authorized by OFAC or expressly exempted by statute, are known as Prohibited transactions. Each program is based on different foreign policy and national security goals, bans on transactions may vary between programs. All U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens must comply with OFAC regulations, regardless of where they are located.  All persons and entities within the United States, incorporated entities and their foreign branches also need to comply with these regulations. If anyone is wrongly listen in SDN list, it becomes important to immediately start the procedure to apply for removing the name from the list. This can be a serious matter and person or organization involved in can suffer to the worst.

Expert’s help to handle OFAC legal matters

People involved in such legal matters need to approach expert lawyers or attorneys practicing in this field for years and years. It is important to hire highly experienced and expert lawyer to handle that case to ensure you get out of this legal matter as soon as possible. There are several legal firms offering legal-services to all clients in and around country or state. People can search over internet to approach the best of the firms to ensure they will get out of these so serious and complex legal matters.

Get special advice in international legal matters

Legal matters are always very complicated, and more than that they are time consuming. You need to be very clear about the regulations that govern your business because any miss or fault from your side would result in penalties and even jail time for the owner. In addition to that, it would cause you a lot of inconvenience if your transactions are kept on hold periodically because they do not comply with the rules and regulations laid down by your country. Such rules for international business are the strictest for companies that operate out of the United States and do business with Iran and other such countries. All such countries are kept under radar by the US government and the laws that govern business transactions with them are very strict. 

For a company it is essential that they should hire a professional who would be able to advice them about such legal matters and then also guide them about what course of action would be most appropriate. At this juncture, since so many characteristics of the right legal counselor have been highlighted, it can be said that Ferrari and Associates meet all of these specifications. They have a number of clients who have consulted with them and who have been extremely satisfied with the kind of services that have been provided by the company. They are very actively involved in the fields of criminal law, federal employment matters and OFAC representation.

OFAC stands for the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the OFAC SDN list is one of the most crucial considerations in international business today. The firm has a vast amount of experience in representing clients who have had cases pending before the OFAC or have been charged or been involved with crimes of a federal nature of international nature. There are very few law firms who handle and have the capacity or the knowledge to advice their clients about such matters. There is an official OFAC SDN list and protocols which need to be followed and for which there are a lot of legal provisions that need to be kept in mind. This firm has been able to resolve a number of cases which also includes OFAC SDN list removal inclusion for its clients. The firm can be of immense support when you have to get licenses from the government for imports from Iran or for sending money to charities or giving loans for which you need specific clearances.

Get assistance about business in Iran

Transaction of business is a very complicated affair especially if most of your business is conducted overseas. Due to the terrorist attacks and increase in the number of illegal activities, all governments, including that of the United States, have their laws more strict and difficult which has made it impossible for companies to work without seeking the assistance of legal expert. This advice is required because without this you would not be able to understand the changes in regulations that happen and which might affect the license that you apply for or which you need renewed. If you work out of the United States then it is very important that you should be familiar with the Iran Sanctions laws and that you should also be able to work within the purview set by the government.

Failure to do so would result in rejection or cancellation of your business license and you might even be imposed with a heavy fine. There are a lot of restrictions on trade of goods and transfer of money which needs to be kept in mind at all point of time. To make sure that your company is adhering to these rules and regulations and that you are not indulging in any work that might result in problems for your firm you should consult with a specialized law firm who would be able to give you accurate guidance. One of the best law firms for this purpose is Ferrari and Associates which is led by Mr Ferrari. He has been working in this region for many years and has been able to provide accurate advice to a number of companies for this purpose. Because transactions that fall under this category are monitored very closely you have to be on your guard and ensure at every point of time that you are working within the law or within the stipulations laid down by the government.

A book has also been launched for this purpose which deals particularly with the topic of Iran sanctions. This book is referred to by attorneys and compliance officers as well as people who belong to the business community. It provides a comprehensive guide to the Iranian transactions regulations and would be able to guide you in most normal matters. This is the first ever guide of this nature and is wholly devoted to specific US economic sanctions programs.

Transfer Of Cash To The U.S. From Iran

The non-marketable individual remittances to the United States from Iran from a third party foreign economic institution and the transfer is not associated to any kind of family business. This is a rule as codified in 31 C.F.R.560.516 (a) (2) and it has been a rule for a mean time. This rule is usually referred to as a common license that indicates it is an untie authorization, which OFAC has offered and does not need any particular approval and application so as to be utilized.

Recently, on the other hand, these people, who are saying that there is diversity of CPAs and lawyers out there selling to the Iranian American society telling that an OFAC particular license is required for every kind of Transfer money to Iran, involving these kinds of personal remittances. If this was not terribly enough, some of these people are meaning that this is because of the recent modification in the law because of OFAC’s adjusting the IFSR.

Be familiar With Iran Transactions

Are you familiar with the Iran Sanctions forced by the Government of the United States? Well, you must be familiar with them, if you want to type in any type of economic agreements with Iran for all the companies in the United States. These Sanctions are handled by OFAC. It is a community that works under the Capital Department of the United States and handles the rules associated with company sanctions with Iran.

The fact is that recent IFSR modifications associated with the permissions of Section 1245 of the NDAA for Financial Year of 2012, those transactions deal with rejecting foreign economic institutions, which connect in considerable economic transactions with the Bank of Iran and the elected Iranian banks contact to journalist or payable with the help of accounts at the United States depository associations. It has not anything to perform with the capability of the United States depository associations to practice individual remittances or payments from Iran.

Guidance To Deal With The Sanctions Of Iran

Apart from employing the expert lawyer, you can even give priority to the book that works as a guidance to recognize the OFAC and the information attached to it. The book is of vast importance, when you are seeking to enter into any type of business relations or links with Iran. It covers all the information and detail and lightens the Transfer money to Iran. You should be approachable to regulations or rules that are falling under the IRS imposed by the OFAC. According to the sanctions on Iran, you can’t make an economic deal with Central Bank of Iran, whether you are a local resident of the U.S. or business entity, you can’t enter into any type of business, property or financial deals with Iran.