Welcome to another edition of C&F Talks, everyone. Today, it's my pleasure to have with me Maya Lester KC. Maya is a Barrister at Brick Court Chambers and specialises in sanctions law and public and competition law.

She represents and advises companies, individuals and governments before the English and European courts and she's a member of the English and Irish Bar. She's also acted in most of the leading cases. So, Maya is going to be speaking at our Economic Sanctions Summit which is coming up on the 20th March in London. Maya, welcome.

Thank you very much.

It's great to have you with us today.

Maya, you're going to be giving delegates an insight into recent UK sanctions cases at the summit next month. Could you give us a whistle-stop tour, of the most significant new decisions and what they might mean for UK companies and financial institutions?

Sure, well thank you so much for inviting me. I won't give too much of a tour because then no one will come and hear the session. But there has been lots of really interesting sanctions cases coming through the courts and arbitral tribunals in the UK.

The sorts of issues that we'll be talking about include the more public law interesting delisting issues that have just been heard by the Supreme Court about people trying to get off sanctions lists and what the court can make of all that. On the more commercial side there are ongoing interesting cases about the vexed issue of when a company is owned or controlled by a designated person and therefore subject to financial sanctions. We've had very interesting judgments on the National Security and Investment Act, which is sort of a related area to sanctions, about the government's powers also in relation to foreign policy and national security issues.

The first criminal prosecution is afoot and coming to court soon for sanctions circumvention. Cases on the relevance of US sanctions to UK contracts, that's an ongoing issue coming through the courts. And also, spats between the Russian and UK courts about who has jurisdiction in relation to certain sanctions claims. So, there's plenty going on and never a dull moment.

Absolutely, absolutely.

President Trump has indicated he doesn't think sanctions are an effective weapon against Russia and is using other tactics in relation to Ukraine. Where does the UK, where do the UK and the EU stand on this front and what difficulties does a potential divergence pose?

I think, very interesting question. I think President Trump, you know, as ever is unpredictable so it's hard to know where this will go. He's certainly said that if there is not a deal and as you know the current talks afoot to try to end the war in Ukraine, that he will impose tariffs, sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the US.

So, I'm not sure that it's true that he's entirely discounted sanctions. Certainly, US sanctions on Russia are still there for now. He's been busy using interestingly traditionally sanctions power, IEEPA, as a statutory basis for his tariffs that he's been imposing in the US and as you know disbanding the KleptoCapture Task Force. So, lots to talk about on the US front.

I think for now, of course, you know the EU and UK are still very much politically where they have been. In other words, very supportive of sanctions on Russia and there's no sign of that being rolled back.

But one would assume that the price for any deal on President Putin's part will be sanctions relief and I would have thought that that was bound to include you know at least some sanctions imposed by the EU and UK as well as the US. We'll have to see. I mean, if there is a real divergence of approach that won't be the first time you know the business community has had to deal with a real patchwork of different inconsistent sanctions measures and obviously there'll be more of the same.

Which obviously is fairly complicated for businesses to manage and navigate.

Indeed, indeed.

Maurice

There's been a huge focus on sanctions against Russia over recent months but what other jurisdictions are attracting sanctions and what should companies be aware of in their dealings with them?

Well, all I mean there are a wide range of sanctions I think up to 40 that the different regimes that the EU and the UK have in place. They definitely are now using sort of thematic sanctions, you know, as much as country sanctions by which I mean, you know, they're now talking about sanctions relating to people smuggling, immigration issues, cyber. So, I think an emphasis on themes as much as geography.

The EU/UK emphasis when it comes to Russia, is very much on how to try to prevent countries from permitting Russia as we would have it to circumvent western sanctions or to get around them. The UK has indicated that it also wants to increase the use of corruption sanctions, targeted sanctions. So, I think we can expect that.

On the US front, again, President Trump is obviously unpredictable so who knows. But so far, he's been also very hawkish on Cuba sanctions reimposing a number of those also on Iran, and as is well known when it comes to China wide use of export control and tariffs. So, you know not much winding down of any sanctions regime at the moment.

There's been also an indication in the UK that it may amend the Syria regime, because obviously that's one that I would have thought will have to change now that the Assad regime is no longer in power and that's very much a sanctions regime aimed at his regime and there's talk of that being amended. So, watch this space.

And actually, to give this space I have a website globalsanctions.com which we update several times a day because there's so much action in this area, and we welcome people having a look at that. We do free trials and demos and we're happily offering a discount on subscriptions to people benefiting from the City & Financial Summit. So, we look forward to that also.

Yeah, well thank you for highlighting that as well. And for our viewers, we very much hope they'll be able to attend the conference in person. That's the Economic Sanctions Summit in London on 20th March. Further information available on our website www.cityandfinancial.com.

Maya is going to be joined by a host of other top speakers at the event and it really is going to be, I think, a very interesting day. As you say Maya, so much to cover, so much material. Thank you, Maya so much for joining us today.

My pleasure. Thank you.