Professional Services News: United States Bans Certain Services Exports to Russia

On Sunday, May 8, the White House announced a new round of sanctions related to Russia, including a ban on certain services exports to Russia. U.S. persons are now prohibited from providing accounting, trust and corporate formation, and management consulting services to any person in the Russian Federation.

While these services are used to operate multinational businesses, they are also potentially used to create workarounds from sanctions or to hide ill-gotten wealth. These services are key to Russian companies and elites building wealth, thereby generating revenue for Putin’s war machine, and to trying to hide that wealth and evade sanctions. 

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified accounting, trust and corporate formation, and management consulting as categories of services that are subject to a prohibition on the export, reexport, sale, or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by a U.S. person, wherever located, to any person located in the Russian Federation, pursuant to Executive Orders 14071 and 14024. 

This prohibition will take effect on June 7, 2022.

Resources:

Read the White House fact sheet and the White House press briefing on these actions. 

Learn more about OFAC’s actions via the Treasury Department’s press release.

Review Executive Order 14071 and Executive Order 14024.