Treasury Releases First-Ever CFIUS Enforcement And Penalty Guidelines

On October 20, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, acting as Chair of the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS" or "the Committee"), released the first-ever CFIUS Enforcement and Penalty Guidelines ("the Guidelines"). The Committee, sometimes called a "black box" for its notoriously opaque internal processes, is authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investment in the United States and certain real estate transactions by foreign persons to determine the effect of such transactions on U.S. national security. CFIUS is tasked with identifying and mitigating certain national security risks, often by entering into agreements or imposing conditions on transaction parties. The Guidelines provide insight into how CFIUS determines whether and in what amount to impose a penalty or take some other enforcement action against a party that fails to comply with CFIUS mitigation agreements or other legal obligations.