Morgan Lewis US and Russia Sanctions Update
CAATSA / Guidances / Lists (cont'd)
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See a reported Jan. 2020 Finnish court decision dismissing claim by Boris Rotenberg, a US-designated SDN,
that certain Scandinavian banks refused to serve his Euro accounts
And a similar (Sept. 2019) English court judgement that upheld a bank's secondary sanctions risk argument
against (non-USD) payment to creditor (a Vekselberg-affiliated entity); and also reported new Dec. 2020
Swiss court ruling against same Vekselberg affiliate (involving USD deposit at Swiss bank - so, involved
primary sanctions)
See also interesting 2018 English court judgement in the Mamancochet case involving claim vs. UK insurers
controlled by US persons on Iranian insured loss
Also a Singapore arbitration filed by Mordashov-owned Power Machines ("PM") vs. Petrovietnam
("PV" - Vietnam's state oil & gas co.) – per Nov. 2019 press report (and then Jan. 2020 press
report that PM willing to carry on with project per non-USD payments)
But see newest English court decision rejecting loan debtor PDVSA's sanctions defense argument
for non-payment: seen as "return to orthodoxy" under English law - and also the recent French
court decision re US secondary sanctions (both links at slide 12)
Note also this series of reported European court cases
holding that European cos. refusal to perform under contracts (e.g., with an Iran or Cuba entity) for fear of
exposure to US secondary sanctions may well not be justified by force majeure - and may also violate
EU Blocking Statute
including April 2020 Dutch court decision in the PGP case (see report)
Note: there is still a CAATSA exemption for Russian suppliers for NASA or DoD space launches
And note the Russian counter-measures enacted in response to CAATSA and the April 2018 SDN
designations and more still to come? (see slides 13 and 86-90 below)
Morgan Lewis
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