US

US Securities and Exchange Commission to review non-US companies’ activities in or with “Rogue States” more closely

Tom Vita, Norton Rose, London. Vitate@nortonrose.com +44 (0)20 7283 6000.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently clarified its position that companies must disclose in their SEC filings any material information regarding business they conduct in or with countries (or with companies, entities or persons) on the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list. The countries currently on the sanctions list are Afghanistan (specifically, the Taliban government), Angola (specifically, UNITA), Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Yugoslavia. The sanctions list also names companies, entities, and persons involved with terrorism, the drug trade and weapons of mass destruction. This disclosure requirement principally affects non-US companies, since US companies are in large part forbidden from trading with countries on the list in the first place.