Clifford Chance

The Truth Will Come Out: U.S. Government Issues New Tri-Seal Compliance Note on Sanctions/Export Control Voluntary Disclosures and Whistleblower Bounties

August 4, 2023

On July 26, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued another Tri-Seal Compliance Note regarding "The Voluntary Disclosure of Potential Violations" involving sanctions, export controls and other national security laws.  The Note emphasizes the increasingly joined up approach of the criminal and administrative authorities, and underscores the carrot and stick, or perhaps stick and carrot, approach to encouraging voluntary self-disclosures.  The Note compares and contrasts the VSD policies of the DOJ National Security Division, BIS and OFAC, while also reminding companies of the relatively new whistleblower bounty program which covers OFAC and export controls violations.  The messaging is clear that if companies do not take the disclosure incentives, the government has dangled the prospect of significant financial awards to their employees to do so as whistleblowers.

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