When the US government sanctioned a major Russian leasing operation in August 2022, Idel Shipping moved quickly to pull its general cargo ships from the blacklisted financier.
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Idel is among several maritime industry companies that have waited months or more than a year to receive an answer in a bid to have their names removed from the sanctions list maintained by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
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Lawyer Matthew Thomas, a partner at law firm Blank Rome who has helped several shipping companies appeal their designation on sanctions lists, said five years ago US officials would have moved quickly to correct a mistake.
Now, with the crush of new sanctions, that is not the case.
“These things are just not moving,” he said, even when anyone who looks at a case can see that it’s a mistake.
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Waits like the one Idel Shipping has endured come amid surging blacklisting by Washington.
Blank Rome’s Thomas said the volume of such actions has been rising at a rapid clip.
As companies, ships and individuals continue to be blacklisted because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Middle East tensions are also fueling ramp-up in designations.
He said these additions to the sanctions list come with no due process or warning.
“With sanctions, you get hit with the penalty, which is being put on the SDN list — blacklisted from US banks and businesses — but there’s no transparent investigation. There’s no opportunity to reply,” Thomas said.
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"The Long Slog: U.S. Sanctions Appeals Drag for More than a Year As Washington Ramps up Blacklistings," by Eric Priante Martin was published in TradeWinds on December 11, 2024.