'Ownership' and 'control' in financial sanctions: a global perspective

The bitter war in Ukraine has intensified focus on firms' sanctions controls, as successive rounds of sanctions against Russia have been introduced by jurisdictions around the world. Tom Cummins and Olivier Dorgans analyse US, EU and UK approaches to the key issues of 'ownership' and 'control'.

Tom Cummins (London, tom.cummins@ashurst.com) and Olivier Dorgans (Paris, olivier.dorgans@ashurst.com) are partners in Ashurst's dispute resolution practice. Sophie Law (London, sophie.law@ashurst.com) and Paul Charlot (Paris, paul.charlot@ashurst.com) are senior associates in the dispute resolution and compliance/internal investigations teams, respectively. Alexander Dmitrenko (alexander.dmitrenko@ashurst.com) is a partner in Ashurst's Tokyo dispute resolution practice. With thanks to lawyers Vicki Tang (Tokyo), Maxime Ménache (Paris) and Clara Dragnev (Paris).

Introduction

As anyone who has been required to consider sanctions in the past few years knows, the concepts of 'ownership' and 'control' are often critical to any analysis of whether sanctions apply to a particular transaction. But why are these concepts important?