Drug Kingpins and Blacklisting : Compliance Issues with U.S. Economic Sanctions, (Part 1)

The proliferation of different sanctions programs and their accompanying blacklists over the last decade poses a number of issues for those seeking to comply with the Government's controls in good faith. To explore these issues Congress created the Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control when it passed the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and directed that the Commission conduct a "review of the current judicial, regulatory, and administrative authorities" relating to the sanctions and "evaluate the remedies available to United States persons" affected by the sanctions. In order to carry out its duties, it's essential that the Commission consider the Kingpin Act sanctions against the backdrop of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's other sanctions programs. While individual sanctions programs are typically created by Government policy makers with a narrow focus on a specific objective, the compliance programs that private parties must craft must integrate all the various programs into a coherent whole in order to manage their business dealings. Accordingly, the full impact of the requirements of any one set of controls, such as the Kingpin Act sanctions, can only be fully appreciated when compared to OFAC's other programs. The aim of this paper is to survey these "compliance" issues. It is an effort to highlight, without delving into the political policies motivating any particular sanctions program, the practical difficulties facing private parties in meeting the requirements of OFAC's disparate programs, including the Kingpin Act sanctions. This is Part 1 of a three part series