Export controls, trade controls and sanctions

Corker Binning specialises in fraud, regulatory litigation and general criminal work of all types. As part of our law firm’s fraud and regulatory practice, we have substantial experience of advising and representing companies and individuals on import/export and other trade control issues, including sanctions, particularly where there is a risk of criminal offences being committed or where a criminal investigation has already started. See Peter Binning's recent blog on criminal offences and Libyan sanctions.

We have acted in most of the landmark export control and trade control prosecutions listed on the website of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).

We have dealt with prosecutions relating to a huge variety of goods (including body armour, electrical parts, fighter jet and tank components, weapons and ammunition) exported to a large number of destinations (including Iran, Iraq, Israel, Sri Lanka, Peru, Venezuela, Nigeria and Senegal). We are familiar with the issues that arise in such prosecutions:

• the technicalities of the UK’s licensing system
• the seizures carried out by HMRC
• the types of evidence that the CPS rely on to demonstrate an intention to evade the UK’s export control regime.

We have strong links with experts in this field, including former managers from the government’s export control department and independent consultants who drafted the relevant UK and EU law regulating the international trade in restricted goods. Expert evidence is often required in criminal cases where issues about the true nature of the goods arise, e.g. whether the goods are on the UK’s military list, whether they are dual-use, and the potential end uses for the goods. We are as familiar with the UK’s trade control regime (which restricts “brokering” the transfer of goods between two "third countries") as we are with the UK’s domestic export control regime.

Our experience is not limited to export control and trade control cases governed by UK law. Any cross-border transfer of goods can trigger obligations under international law, EU law and particularly the extraterritorial branch of US sanctions law.

Working with law firms in the US and Europe, we have advised numerous companies and individuals on the combined effect of these laws and how businesses can make themselves compliant. We can advise companies on making voluntary disclosures to BIS and/or HMRC with the aim of avoiding a criminal prosecution and negotiating a civil settlement instead. Recently we have advised:

• a European manufacturing company and employees of a major UK bank on the US Iran sanctions regime
• a household name business regarding its obligations under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora and the associated EU legislation governing imports of restricted goods into the EU
• a European multi-national company engaged in the sale of machinery to Iran containing an element of US manufactured software triggering potential offences under US law
• a number of individuals in the UN Oil for Food investigations.

All of the partners at Corker Binning have experience of trade control and sanctions cases. For more information on how we can help you, call Peter Binning on 0207 353 6000