Certain Zimbabwean individuals, government officials and state-owned entities have been under sanctions and restrictive measures since 2001 imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom and European Union. These sanctions have restricted such individuals from conducting international transactions, international trade, and have imposed travel bans to those countries.
In recent years, with the growing international discourse on the prevention of bribery, corruption, and human rights violations, the restrictive measures imposed on the country have led to the grey listing of Zimbabwe by the Financial Action Task Force, meaning that Zimbabwe is identified as having strategic deficiencies in its regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. In turn, this has significantly impacted the country’s ability to attract and retain international banking correspondent relationships. As a result, this continues to cripple the business sector, particularly in the payment for international transactions, as international financial institutions impose numerous compliance requirements for such transactions, which lead to delays in payments, loss of business, inability to purchase machinery and loss in profits.
Titan Law is part of the legal team that filed the largest sanctions-related annulment application ever in the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg to challenge the sanctions imposed on 123 Zimbabwean nationals and entities. We work with law firms and experts in the United Kingdom and the United States in these matters. Our involvement in challenging the sanctions seeks to contribute to the ultimate lifting of all sanctions, thus improving the country’s rating as an investment destination.
The Firm’s practice in this area has grown to advising on asset tracing, unexplained wealth orders, as well as the prosecution of cartels, white collar crime, fraud, money laundering, bribery, corruption and tax offenses.