CITIBANK RETURNED FUNDS OF AN L&P CLIENT-BANK BLOCKED IN SPRING OF 2022

08/02/2023 СITIBANK, one of the major US credit institutions – CITIBANK – unblocked and transferred several million dollars of own funds to the owner – an L&P client-bank. Completion of the suspended transactions was made possible by the license of the US Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) lifting all restrictions on operations of the bank, obtained by the L&P attorneys with the help of US colleagues two months prior to the transfer, and consequent persistent work with the compliance department of CITIBANK.

“In our experience, CITIBANK is a colossal institution that usually takes a lot of time to process requests from clients that present alleged sanctions risks, and does not always promptly react in event to decisions of US authorities on blocked payments and insists on its own additional compliance review. We anticipate similar good news from other US-based credit institutions, which have previously frozen our client’s operations. It’s thrilling to see that hard and persistent efforts of our international team bring real sustainable results,” – says one of the leaders of the L&P sanctions practice, attorneys Alexei Sereda.