Sanctions 2025

AUSTRALIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Dennis Miralis and Jack Dennis, Nyman Gibson Miralis

Increase in Regulatory Guidance In the wake of the DFAT report in July 2024, which recognised many stakeholders calling for DFAT to “increase its use of guidance notes and FAQs”, DFAT has published a deluge of guidance and advisory notes. This material addresses both general and spe - cific sanction-related issues and is critical in light of not only sanctions law but also the formalisation of sanctions-related AML/CTF responsibilities. The guidance notes cover a broad range of topics across commercial activity, industry sectors, and gen - eral compliance. These include artificial intelligence and quantum technology; cyber and ransomware payments; digital currency exchanges; fintech and the DeFi sectors; employment; the finance industry; maritime; remittance service providers; government employees; and universities. The advisory notes are more targeted in scope, intended to assist stakeholders in identifying and understanding their sanctions risks by outlining typol - ogies that may be relevant to their risk assessments. Accordingly, these will be the starting point for any AUSTRAC-regulated entity (see AUSTRAC’s AML/ CTF Rules above). The new advisory notes include topics such as Russian sanctions evasion, the Aus - tralian export sector, the information technology sec - tor and touring companies, and musicians and sports professionals. Finally, for further assurance, DFAT released two tools: • Sanctions Compliance Toolkit (SCT): This is a comprehensive guidance document that explains Australia’s sanctions regulations through practi - cal case studies in two parts. The first provides an overview of how to identify sanctions risks; the second outlines how regulated entities can manage those risks effectively. • Risk Assessment Tool (RAT): This is a structured questionnaire designed to help regulated entities and legal professionals conduct an initial assess - ment of whether their activities may be subject to sanctions risk.

Absence of Enforcement Action From compliance to enforcement; or rather, a lack thereof. Without published statistics, it is difficult to determine trends, including in the use of Section 19 notices and enforcement proceedings. According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution’s 2024 Annual Report, there were no charges under the Sanc - tions Act, leaving R v Choi (No 10) (2021) as the only reported law enforcement case in Australia. This stands in sharp contrast with other jurisdictions. Australia’s lack of enforcement actions may be due to resources, a preference for a co-operative approach by the Australian Sanctions Office (ASO), or acknowledg - ment that the sanctions regimes are new and untest - ed – giving rise to such cases as Tigers Realm Coal Limited v Commonwealth of Australia (2024) (“Tigers Realm”), where the business continued to operate for approximately 18 months, despite the ASO assessing such operations as being prohibited. In respect of this case, the ASO is reportedly still considering enforce - ment options. However, as of July 2024, the relevant Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed company was delisted and the sale of its assets was complete, pending President Putin’s approval. An emerging thread from the recent reviews was the need to increase monitoring and enforcement capa - bilities, particularly against assets in Australia and evasion tactics. Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team In March 2025, Russia vetoed the renewal of the man - date of the Panel of Experts (PoE) under the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1718. The PoE was responsible for reporting on North Korea’s non-compliance with sanctions. In response, Australia has joined Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Repub - lic of Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States to establish a member state-led Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) to monitor and report on North Korea’s sanctions non- compliance.

CHAMBERS.COM