Rapid Growth of Lobbying Industry Amid US Expansion of Foreign Sanctions... "Annual 41 Trillion Won"

Love Calls from Former FBI Directors and Other High-Ranking Officials

As U.S. foreign sanctions have expanded, the lobbying market responding to them has also rapidly grown to an annual scale of 41 trillion won.

The Washington Post (WP) reported this on the 24th (local time) after analyzing documents from the U.S. Department of Justice. The amount spent on lobbying related to U.S. sanctions overseas increased more than fivefold from about $6 million (approximately 8.3 billion won) in 2014 to $31 million (approximately 42.7 billion won) in 2022. Lobbying expenditures by U.S. companies also surged from $97 million (approximately 133.8 billion won) in 1998 to over $353 million (approximately 486.8 billion won) last year.

Peter Piateski, former senior policy advisor for sanctions and money laundering at the Treasury Department, told WP, "Companies generally spend more on advice about how to comply with sanctions," adding, "The compliance lobbying market, which did not exist 20 years ago, now totals more than $30 billion (approximately 41 trillion won) annually and grows about 10% each year."

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

WP explained, "This coincides with the explosive increase in U.S. foreign sanctions," noting, "In the early 2000s, the U.S. imposed only hundreds of sanctions annually, but in the past two years, it has been over 3,000 each year."

The lobbyists receiving calls from a variety of clients?from Chinese IT companies targeted by U.S. sanctions to Serbian arms dealers and Russian oligarchs?are former high-ranking U.S. officials and lawmakers. They have been found to help countries or companies indicted by the U.S. government avoid economic penalties or provide know-how on complying with U.S. regulations without harming diplomatic or security interests.

The list of lobbyists confirmed by WP includes former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Senator Tom Daschle (Democrat), former Senator Trent Lott (Republican), former Senator Norm Coleman (Republican), as well as Rudy Giuliani and Alan Dershowitz, who were former Trump campaign advisers.

WP claimed, "Currently, at least 190 former U.S. officials work at lobbying firms specializing in sanctions," and "These lobbyists have signed contracts worth millions of dollars with blacklisted Chinese companies, Middle Eastern financial institutions, governments accused of genocide, and have successfully lifted sanctions in more than 12 cases."

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered one of the countries that has greatly benefited from such lobbying. WP emphasized, "Dubai, the UAE's largest city, is a gathering place for various arms dealers, gangs, Russian oligarchs, and African illegal gold smugglers, and even though the U.S. State Department regards the country as a transshipment point for illegal drugs laundered through banks and real estate, the UAE government has faced little sanction," adding, "The amount the UAE spent on Washington D.C. lobbyists from 2016 to 2023 reached $193 million."