ExxonMobil said Thursday that the Department of the Treasury engaged in a type of history revisionism when it slapped the oil company with fines for violating Russian sanctions.
The Treasury Department fined Exxon $2 million Thursday for violating sanctions leveled against Igor Sechin, the wealthy CEO of oil giant Rosneft. Exxon disputed the government’s allegations in a press statement and said the fines were “fundamentally unfair.”
Exxon did business with Rosneft, not Sechin, the company stated. The sanctions enacted in 2014 were brought against the Russian oilman but not his company, Exxon added, leaving the company’s former CEO Rex Tillerson free to engage with the giant Russian oil producer.
But the Treasury Department argues that Exxon showed “reckless disregard” for allegedly dealing with Sechin, who on the U.S. government’s blacklist. The government also alleges that Exxon executives knew Sechin was blacklisted. Exxon caused “significant harm” to the program, the government alleged Thursday morning.
Exxon alleges the government is playing fast and loose with the facts. Treasury Department officials are “trying to retroactively enforce a new interpretation of an executive order that is inconsistent with the explicit and unambiguous guidance from the White House and Treasury issued before the relevant conduct and still publicly available today,” the company wrote.
Former President Barack Obama’s White House issued a several guidance requirements in 2014 for companies considering doing business with companies in Russia.
“Our current focus is to identify individuals and target their personal assets, but not companies that they may manage on behalf of the Russian state,” a White House fact sheet noted at the time.
Other Obama administration officials made similar statements.
Tony Blinken, Obama’s White House Deputy National Security Adviser, for instance, told reporters in April 2014 that Sechin was blacklisted in his “individual capacity” but that Rosneft was not designated, which would help American companies minimize the impact they face when involved with some Russian projects.
The allegations come as lawmakers hash out a slew of Russian sanctions that some trade experts believe could hurt the U.S. more than Russia.
Energy analysts believe that the so-called Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017, which seeks to punish Russia for meddling in the U.S. presidential election, could cause ripple effects throughout the U.S. economy. The U.S. Senate passed the measure 98-2 earlier this month.
Any hint of a Russian investment in a project will automatically trigger sanctions, Thomas Pickering, a foreign expert with the Brookings Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday. He served as the Under Secretary for Political Affairs during the Clinton administration.
Richard Sawaya, vice president of National Foreign Trade Council, mirrored Pickering’s position in a July 19 editorial.
“Were this legislation to pass with the Directive 4 provision included, it could block U.S. oil and gas firms from participating in some international oil exploration and production projects,” he wrote. Sawaya gave a handful of examples regarding why the sanctions could clobber the energy industry.
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