Tag Archives: Jamie A. Schafer

AMLA 2020: New Penalties for Concealing Transactions Involving Senior Foreign Political Figures

by Barak Cohen, David B. Massey, Jamie A. Schafer, David Sewell, and Paul M. Korol

On New Year’s Day 2021, Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA 2020). The AMLA 2020 included sweeping reforms aimed at strengthening protections against money laundering, terrorism financing, and other illegal activities.

In this article, we examine two new criminal penalties established by the AMLA 2020. In a nutshell, these penalties prohibit concealing or falsifying information related to ownership or control of funds in transactions involving senior foreign political figures and entities designated to be of primary money laundering concern. This is a potentially significant new tool providing for criminal prosecution targeting a broad swath of intermediaries who may be involved in facilitating transactions involving senior foreign political officials, including brokers, nominees, lawyers and any other person or entity that may communicate with a financial institution in the course of a transaction falling under these provisions.

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The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020: The Remarkable Expansion of the U.S. Government’s Subpoena Power Over Foreign Financial Institutions

by Barak Cohen, David B. Massey, Jamie A. Schafer, David Sewell, and Bria M. Cochran

On New Year’s Day 2021, Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA 2020), which included sweeping reforms aimed at strengthening protections against money laundering, terrorism financing, and other illegal activities. In this post, we examine the AMLA 2020’s remarkable expansion of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Treasury’s subpoena authority over foreign financial institutions, which has significant implications for foreign financial institutions maintaining U.S. correspondent accounts Continue reading →

DOJ Issues First FCPA Advisory Opinion in Six Years: A Note of Caution and Practical Takeaways

by Jamie A. Schafer, David B. Massey, Lee S. Richards III and Michael D. Mann

On August 14, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published the agency’s first Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) Opinion Procedure Release (“FCPA Opinion Release”) since 2014.[1] In this guidance, DOJ confirmed that it would not prosecute a company for commercially reasonable payments made to a state-owned service provider in return for legitimate services rendered where there was no corrupt intent or diversion of money to any individual. As always, FCPA Opinion Releases should be read narrowly because the analysis relates to specific complex circumstances, many of which are not transparent to the reader.

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