Ignacio E. Sanchez

• Lead counsel on over 100 sanctions enforcement matters successfully resolved before U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) including associated global investigations, design of remedial measures and preparation of disclosures before OFAC
• Lead counsel in obtaining over 100 licenses from OFAC for clients to engage in activities otherwise prohibited by sanctions.  As a result, some licenses changed US policy and were ultimately converted into new regulations authorizing the covered conduct
• Represented numerous clients on secondary sanctions administered by the US Department of State and secured approval for the clients’ matters and successfully defended a non-U.S. company erroneously targeted and listed by the State Department
• Advised dozens of clients on the design and implementation of world-wide corporate compliance programs, associated training programs, risk assessments and audits
• Counseled clients on the evolution of US trade policy over numerous presidential administrations, including the most recent series of Executive Orders, National Security Policy Memoranda and Proclamations on trade and investment, the legal challenges to such actions and the development of mitigations strategies (especially relative to tariffs)
• Represented numerous clients on evolving supply chain restrictions, especially under the Uyghur Forced Labor Preventions Act, including
  
  • Development of supply chain transparency programs
  • Successfully overcoming detention orders issued by U.S. Customs & Border Protection
  • Representing a party placed on the UFLPA Entity List
  • Congressional investigations related to clients’ supply chains
  • Commercial disputes arising from allegations of violations of supply chain restrictions
• Assisted clients in evaluating and complying with rapidly changing global trade restrictions (sanctions and export controls), especially restrictions relevant to China
• Lead counsel on multiple and simultaneous congressional investigations into several high-profile cyber-attacks suffered by clients
• Developed legal and political strategies for foreign and domestic clients seeking or opposing regulatory approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for international transactions involving the acquisition of companies or assets in the US
• Assembled and led multinational teams to assist clients investigative and regulatory matters affecting their global business interests
• Advised foreign governments (including their SOEs and SWFs) on implementing government affairs strategies in Washington DC before the Congress, the White House and the Executive branch agencies on policy, legislation, appropriations and any issues impacting the bilateral relationship
  
  

Congressional Testimony

Due to Ignacio's experience on national security related matters, he has been called on to render testimony at Congressional hearings before the: 

• International Economic Policy and Trade subcommittee of the US House of Representative's International Relations Committee concerning US sanctions' policy and disputes relative to those policies before the World Trade Organization
• Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee concerning the extraterritorial reach of US sanctions
• Trade subcommittee of the US House of Representative's Ways and Means Committee on the Legal and Economic Relationship between the United States and Cuba
• Courts and Intellectual Property subcommittee of the US House of Representative's Judiciary Committee on issues related to government confiscations

• Co-Author, "U.S. Department of Commerce Proposed a Rule Limiting Imports of Chinese and Russian Connected Vehicles and Equipment," The Global Trade Law Journal, May-June 2025
• CFIUS filing fees effective as of May 1, 2020: What you need to know, May 5, 2020
• Hospitality industry update: President signs into law massive COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus package, April 3, 2020
• Coronavirus: Congressional leaders and the Trump Administration reach agreement on massive COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus package, March 26, 2020
• Coronavirus: Several state and local governments issue "shelter in place" orders (United States), March 23, 2020
• Coronavirus: emergency response legislation passed by the Senate; additional stimulus and tax relief expected soon (United States), March 18, 2020
• New regulations reinforce CFIUS's expanded role with respect to foreign investments in the United States, January 16, 2020
• Treasury Department proposes regulations comprehensively implementing FIRRMA and reforming CFIUS national security review, September 19, 2019
• Trump issues Executive Order on securing information and communications technology and services – key points, May 16, 2019
• US government sanctions Petróleos de Venezuela, authorizes US persons to engage in certain limited transactions, January 29, 2019
• CFIUS pilot program mandates declarations for certain non-controlling investments in critical technologies, October 17, 2018
• FIRRMA, reforming CFIUS process, is signed into law, August 13, 2018
• Congress finalizes CFIUS reform bill to broaden national security reviews of foreign investments, July 25, 2018
• US to re-impose sanctions on Iran as it withdraws from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, May 9, 2018
• "Foreign Governments' Misuse of Federal RICO: The Case For Reform," Washington Legal Foundation – Working Paper Series, May 2006
• "Cuban Property Rights and the 1940 Constitution," Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law and Policy, Vol. 3, Spring 1994

• "Overview of US Primary and Secondary Sanctions," Client Training Series, February 2020
• "The Legal World is Flat Too:  FCPA, Sanctions, FARA and AML," NACDL's 15th Annual White Collar Seminar and Fall Board Meeting, October 2019
• "Dealing with Evolving Sanctions in an Era of Anti-blocking Measures," American Conference Institute, AML & OFAC Compliance for the Insurance Industry, January 2019
• "Overview of US Primary and Secondary Sanctions," Client Training Series, January 2019
• "Chinese Companies Doing Business in the USA: Navigating the Changes, Challenges and the Opportunities – CFIUS," Client Series in Hong Kong and Shanghai, November 2018
• "Overview of US National Security Compliance Issues: The People, the Products and the Deal," March 2017
• "Acquiring a US Company or Assets: Preparing for CFIUS (The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States)," Abu Dhabi, September 2015
• "Global Issues Forum: The Ever-Evolving Ukraine/Russia Sanctions Regime," Association of Corporate Counsel, October 2014
• "Evolution of Reinsurance Regulation and the Reinsurance Market," Client Series, September 2012
• "The United States and Cuba: Implications of an Economic Relationship," Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Latin America Program, May 2010
• "That Little Infernal Cuban Republic: US Policies Toward Cuba in Historical Perspective," Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Latin America Program, July 2009
• "Acquiring a U.S. ITAR-Registered Company: Preparing for CFIUS," C5's 2nd Annual Conference - ITAR Compliance in Munich, Germany, June 2009
• "THE SOVEREIGNS ARE COMING! CONQUERORS? OR SAVIORS?," Columbia Business School Alumni Club, May 2008 – Discussion of the economic, political and national security implications of sovereign wealth funds and foreign direct investment in the United States Council on Foreign Relations' Corporate Program – "New CFIUS law and procedures", March 2008
• "Cuba in Transition—Options for Addressing the Challenge of Expropriated Properties," Association for the Study of the Cuba Economy, Sixth Annual Meeting, August 2006
• ABA Annual Meeting, International Law Section (1994) – Lecture on international law issues related to government confiscation of property in Cuba
• US/Cuba Policy," World Policy Institute Conference, July 2004