- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Ruth Prickett2024-12-05T13:00:00
The European Union and U.K. have rushed to commit themselves to intensifying action on sanctions evasion after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. Trump has expressed scepticism about sanctions regimes, but any compliance managers who believe this will make global sanctions compliance easier in 2025 are likely to be disappointed.
Instead, compliance managers should prepare for faster investigations as well as increasing numbers of prosecutions. They should also be looking to increase due diligence and continuous screening to ensure compliance across their operations, as regulators seek to tackle sophisticated sanctions evasion networks.
Lax procedures could prove expensive. When the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), found that Starling Bank had failed to comply with improvements to its anti-money-laundering and sanctions frameworks in October, it fined the bank nearly £29 million (then-U.S. $38.5 million) after a comparatively rapid prosecution of 14 months.
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With a new political regime ready to take over in the U.S., the effectiveness of sanctions against malign foreign actors like Russia, North Korea, and Iran have come into question. While the European Union and U.K. have increased sanctions pressure, critics have publicly asked: Is it enough?
Global sanctions rules are increasing rapidly, as are tools to detect and punish those who break them. In response, the U.K. government is creating a new Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation to investigate and penalize those who break sanctions rules.
The U.K. has an ongoing problem with money laundering, but recent changes to economic crime law and corporate registration requirements could bring more cases to court, according to consultancy KPMG.
The U.K. has issued 56 new sanctions against entities and individuals involved with Russia’s war effort, including several private mercenary groups operating in Africa that are connected to the Kremlin.
Five individuals and seven entities in Iran, China, and Hong Kong have been targeted for U.S. sanctions by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for helping to obtain components used in Iran’s missles and drones.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned nearly 50 entities connected with so-called “shadow banking” networks that help Iran’s military evade U.S. sanctions and to sell the country’s oil and petrochemical products.
