Global Magnitsky Sanctions- FAQs

Global Magnitsky Sanctions FAQs

Frequently asked Global Magnitsky Sanctions questions answered. Global Magnitsky Sanctions are also “GloMag” here.

What are the Global Magnitsky Sanctions?

  • The Global Magnitsky Sanctions are unilateral United States sanctions that target certain corruption and human rights abuses worldwide. “Unilateral” here means that the GloMag were not, for example, issued in concert with other nations or pursuant to a United Nations mandate or obligation. In promulgating and enforcing the Sanctions, the United States is acting alone.
  • Under the Global Magnitsky Sanctions, foreign government officials, foreign private parties (companies, banks, individuals, non-profit organizations, and others) can be sanctioned if the President of the United States determines that such persons are responsible for, complicit in, or facilitated sanctionable acts of corruption or human rights abuse anywhere in the world.

The GloMag carry two kinds of sanctions: (1) financial and (2) immigration.

  • ­ Financial sanctions prohibit U.S. persons anywhere in the world (companies, banks, individuals) from transacting business transactions with sanctioned persons and require U.S. persons to “block” or freeze sanctioned persons’ property and property interests in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons.
  • Immigration sanctions, which apply to non-U.S. persons, prohibit sanctioned persons from entering the United States. There are limited exceptions to immigration sanctions—for example, a sanctioned foreign person may be admitted to the United States if, for example, such admission is in the interest of U.S. law enforcement or required by U.S. obligations to the United Nations.

The GlogMag are based on multiple legal authorities, particularly U.S. statutes, one presidential executive order, and the U.S. Constitution. Some of these are more important than others in terms of their immediate substantive and practical import. The key legal authorities are outlined here.

  • Executive Order 13818 of December 20, 2017, “Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse and Corruption,” promulgated the GlogMag. The Order declares a “national emergency” with respect to “serious human rights” abuses and a broad range of corrupt acts that threaten “the stability of international political and economic systems” and “constitute an unusual an extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
  • EO 13818 in substantial part implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (“Global Magnitsky Act”), a 2016 law that authorizes the President to freeze certain property and restrict the entry into the United States of “foreign persons” that the President determines, “based on credible evidence,” are responsible for certain corrupt acts and human rights abuses committed wholly or substantially outside of the United States.
  • EO 13818 also relies on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law that underpins a number of U.S. sanctions programs. The President’s invocation of the IEEPA is significant because it in large part allowed him to expand the Global Magnitsky Sanctions beyond the provisions of the Global Magnitsky Act.
  • The relative expansiveness of EO 13818 indicates that the Trump Administration, in drafting the Order, was seeking wide sanctions authority and enforcement latitude, beyond what the Global Magnitsky Act authorizes.
  • Of lesser legal significance to the GlogMag, EO 13818 also relies on the President’s constitutional authority, the National Emergencies Act, the Immigration and Nationality act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code (authorizing the President to delegate authority to certain heads of Executive Branch departments or agencies).
  • On June 28, 2018, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations. The GlogMag Regulations entered into force on June 29, 2018 and track, clarify, and elaborate some provisions of EO 13818.
  • The President has authority to impose sanctions.
  • Because the President, in EO 13818, delegated sanctions authority to the Secretary of the Treasury, the Department of the Treasury—most notably OFAC—issued the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, administers the GlogMag, and announces sanctions actions for the general public, usually via the Treasury Department’s main website and OFAC’s website).
  • Persons who engage in, facilitate, or are otherwise responsible for “serious human rights abuse” anywhere in the world can be sanctioned under the GlogMag.
  • EO 13818 does not define “serious human rights abuse” and is therefore expansive. In contrast, the Global Magnitsky Act limits (but does not define conclusively) sanctionable human rights abuses, particularly to those that constitute “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” such as torture and extrajudicial killings.
  • Certain acts of corruption committed anywhere in the world are sanctionable under the Global Magnkitsy Sanctions. These corrupt acts include, but are not limited to:
    • corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery, and
    • the transfer or the facilitation of the transfer of the proceeds of corruption.
  • The GlogMag primarily target foreign persons (or non-U.S. persons), meaning individual nationals of foreign countries and foreign entities like companies, banks, and others.
  • U.S. persons—meaning U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, foreign persons while present in the United States, U.S. companies, foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries or affiliates, etc.—may also be penalized for evading, avoiding, or violating the GlogMag, or conspiring to do the same.
  • Notably, certain U.S. persons—namely dual citizens and multinational enterprises—face full sanctions exposure under the GlogMag. In other words, they are treated liked “foreign persons.” This is because the Global Magnitsky Act and the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations define dual citizens and multinational enterprises/companies as “foreign persons.”
  • Current officials of foreign governments can be sanctioned for corruption (and serious human rights abuse) under the GlogMag. This is legally significant as the direct sanctioning of current foreign officials for corruption departs from prevailing U.S. legal and international frameworks.

The Global Magnitsky Sanctions carry two kinds of sanctions: (1) financial sanctions and (2) immigration sanctions.

    • Financial sanctions prohibit U.S. persons anywhere in the world (companies, banks, individuals) from transacting business transactions with sanctioned persons and require U.S. persons to “block” or freeze sanctioned persons’ property and property interests in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons.
    • Immigration sanctions, which apply to non-U.S. persons, prohibit sanctioned persons from entering the United States. There are limited exceptions to immigration sanctions—for example, a sanctioned foreign person may be admitted to the United States if, for example, such admission is in the interest of U.S. law enforcement or required by U.S. obligations to the United Nations.
  • Sanctions imposed under the Global Magnitsky Sanctions program are not necessarily permanent and can be lifted by the President.
  • The President may terminate sanctions only if he or she, no later than 15 days before the termination of sanctions, reports to the relevant Congressional committees that: (1) a person was wrongly sanctioned; (2) the sanctioned person has been “prosecuted appropriately for the activity for which sanctions were imposed”; (3) the sanctioned “person has credibly demonstrated a significant change in behavior, has paid an appropriate consequence for the activity for which sanctions were imposed, and has credibly committed to not engage in” sanctionable human rights abuses and/or corrupt acts in the future; or, (4) the “termination of the sanctions is in the national security interests of the United States.” (Quoted language is in the Global Magnitsky Act).
  • For information about the mechanics of SDN (Specially Designated National) removals, see the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) website.
  • For more information about the Global Magnitsky Sanctions programs, visit OFAC’s program page.
  • Also, see Hdeel Abdelhady‘s Global Magnitsky Sanctions analyses, including listed here.
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