More Russian Companies at Risk as U.S. Tightens Sanctions

The U.S. Treasury broadened the scope of sanctions programs by revising a rule on the ownership of entities by targeted individuals that may extend the measures to at least one Russian company.

The change, announced in a notice on the department’s website yesterday, means that a firm would be sanctioned if any combination of sanctioned individuals collectively owns at least 50 percent of it. Previously, the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s so-called 50 percent rule required a single sanctioned person to own 50 percent or more of an entity for it also to be subject to sanctions.