Tipsters Won’t Be Told If Their Tip Led to Enforcement Action, UK Sanctions Agency Says
Companies that send tips about possible sanctions breaches to the new U.K. Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation won’t necessarily be notified if their tips lead to an enforcement action, the agency said in new guidance last week.
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If a company submits a report to OTSI about a sanctions violations committed by “someone else or by another business,” the agency said it “will not inform you of any action they may take due to case confidentiality.” The clarification comes about three months after the U.K. launched the new office to boost the country’s sanctions enforcement powers, which includes encouraging businesses and others to submit voluntary disclosures about potential violations (see 2410100010).
Although OTSI won’t notify businesses about enforcement actions against others, the agency said it will inform a business about an enforcement action if that business self-reported their own violation. “OTSI cannot give a timescale for this due to the complexity of some cases,” the agency said.
The U.S. also has encouraged companies to submit tips about possible sanctions and export control breaches committed by others. The Bureau of Industry and Security updated its policies last year so that a company that sends a tip to BIS -- if that tip later leads to an enforcement action against another organization or person -- will receive "mitigating" credit from the agency if that company finds itself under investigation by BIS in the future (see 2409120017).