Maya Lester KC is a barrister at Brick Court Chambers in London. She specialises in sanctions law (as well as EU and public law) and has appeared in many of the leading cases in the EU and UK. Maya Lester can be reached by email at Maya.lester@brickcourt.co.uk or by phone at +44 207 379 3550.

Michael O’Kane is the Senior Partner at Peters & Peters. He has acted in many of the most high-profile and sensitive business crime cases of the last 25 years, at the firm and before as a senior prosecutor. He has particular expertise in international corruption, criminal cartels, financial sanctions, INTERPOL, extradition and private prosecutions. Michael O’Kane can be reached by email at MOKane@petersandpeters.com or by phone at +44 (0)20 7822 7777.

In this podcast episode, Dr Rosinus welcomes Maya Lester and Michael O’Kane. Together, they  talk about sanction law. They begin by outlining the general EU, UK, and US sanctions jurisdictions, highlighting their similarities and differences. Mr O’Kane then explains the applicability of UK sanctions and Mrs Lester addresses the influence of post-Brexit case law by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the UK.

Further, they provide an overview of the enforcement of UK sanctions, illustrating this with exemplary cases of non-compliance. They explain how the EU and UK sanctions regimes determine whether a company asset is owned by a person on a sanctions list. Following this, they discuss the impact of sanctions, particularly regarding Russia, on the London legal market and explain how legal advice can be provided to individuals on sanctions lists. Further, the guests outline relevant court cases.

Finally, Mrs Lester and Mr O’Kane present their joint website www.globalsanctions.co.uk where they provide up to date information and practical legal advice regarding sanctions.

In the fifth episode of our English series our guest on the podcast is Mirjam Hannah Steinfeld. Today’s topic is sanctions options according to the German criminal code. In this episode, they address the possibilities of punishment of natural persons.

After an overview of sentencing options in general, they go into the details of the German fine system and especially address imprisonment as a sentencing option. They go into the reality of the custodial sentences and the probation system. Dr Rosinus explains the possibility to combine the different punishment options which is common in white collar crime. In addition, they point out different aspects which are relevant for the judge for sentencing.

Mrs. Steinfeld explains the opportunity of an early release and special conditions that apply to foreigners. Besides that, they talk about the additional measures, which may be imposed after a criminal conviction.

In the fourth episode of our English series our guest on the podcast is Scott Hulsey. After a brief introduction of himself he speaks with Dr Rosinus about the policies of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in particular about the updated Corporate Enforcement Policy.

Mr Hulsey first explains the scope of activities of the DOJ as a federal governmental authority. Afterwards he and Dr Rosinus speak about DOJ Policies in general and Dr Rosinus draws a comparison to German prosecuting guidelines.

Further, they talk about the new guidelines that the DOJ transmitted to the prosecutors. Mr Hulsey gives an overview of the main updates in the Corporate Enforcement Policy, in particular the new provision on tying compensation to compliance conduct, the disclosure provisions, and the introduction of a precise system for disclosing the consequences of breaches of the policy.

Mr. Hulsey highlights the impacts of the policy to corporate compliance systems, not only for American but also for global companies. Eventually, Mr Hulsey outlines the consequences for M&A transactions.

You can find the DOJ Corporate Enforcement Policy here: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/corporate-enforcement-policy