Sanctions and money laundering on the agenda

With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the world community's reactions to this, sanctions and money laundering is probably a more relevant theme than ever. A total of about 600 participants, including a fully booked auditorium at the National Museum, were signed up to follow the three-hour long seminar on 16 February.

High risk

Our Chairman of the Board, Geir Sviggum opened the seminar by emphasizing the importance of today's topics. Our Partner Tine Vigmostad and Senior Lawyer Kristin Nordland Brattli, who are experts on sanctions and money laundering, started by explaining today's geopolitical background and current risk factors – and how this should be handled in the preventive compliance work.

Sanctions have hit Norwegian and international businesses either directly or indirectly to a significant extent - and we have been exposed to new risk factors," says Tine.

They pointed out the risk factors that companies may face, including hidden ownership, circumvention risk and falsified documents.

"The rapid escalation in sanctions have required significant time and resources in 2022. Financial institutions and insurance companies have naturally focused on anti-money laundering risks, but also other companies should be aware of the risk of trade-based money laundering - especially those who conduct international business", Kristin pointed out.

The deputy head of the Police Supervisory Authority, Hedvig Moe, had an interesting talk on sanctions enforcement and risks to the Norwegian national security.

There was also time for a panel discussion about the effect sanctions actually have, where Yara's EVP, Kristine Ryssdal, highlighted the complexities of sanctions for international business operators, and the Deputy Head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Martin Sørby, emphasized that this was indeed a challenging and difficult landscape, and offered advice on how to deal with the escalation in sanctions – including to seek legal advice from the larger law firms in Norway with an established sanctions practice.

We also heard how DNB works with sanctions and anti-money laundering, and the Financial Supervisory Authority's work on sanctions, as well as Dun & Bradstreet's tips on how to navigate data and unknown factors.

From Wikborg Rein;

• Kristin Nordland Brattli, Senior Lawyer
• Tine Vigmostad, Partner
• Elisabeth Roscher, Partner and Head of ESG, Compliance and Crisis Management Team
• Geir Sviggum, Partner and Chairman of the Board

These also contributed as speakers and panel participants:

• Hedvig Moe Assisting Manager, PST
• Mats Benestad, Supervisory Adviser at the Financial Supervisory Authority
• Martin Sørby, Deputy Chair of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Legal Department
• Kristine Ryssdal, EVP General Counsel at Yara International
• Kristine Rørholt, Division Director at DNB's Compliance Department
• Kine Bjelke Christophersen, Head of International Sanctions at DNB’s Compliance Department
• Kari Mette Berg Almskog, CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Norge
• Theodora Papadimitropoulou, Head of Go To Market, Risk and Compliance in Dun & Bradstreet

We are already looking forward to the next professional anniversary seminar, "More energy – faster. Where does the road follow the Energy Commission’s report?" which will take place on 30 March 2023.