Interview with Steven Pelak
COMPLIANCE
Editor ’ s note : The following is an excerpt of an interview with Steven Pelak , conducted by Julia Herring , to learn more about the origins of and the reasons for establishing the fund .
Interview with Steven Pelak
Steven Pelak is an architect of the proposals that led to the establishment of the USVSST Fund . Pelak is a former chief of the Counterespionage Section ( now Counterintelligence and Export Control Section ) of the DOJ and Assistant U . S . Attorney in the District of Columbia . Since June 2013 , Pelak has been a partner with the law firm Holland & Hart in Washington , D . C . Pelak shared some of the history related to the circumstances and events that led to the enactment of the USVSST Act and the Fund and provided some insights into the future of the fund .
Julia Herring ( JH ): Can you tell me a little bit about how you got involved with activities leading to the USVSST Fund and the initial events leading to Congress ’ enactment of the USVSST Act and Fund in December 2015 ?
Steven Pelak ( SP ): On behalf of the U . S . Government employees killed and injured in the August 1998 attacks upon our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania ( East African Embassy employees ), we filed in 2014 a Petition for Remission with the ( then ) Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section ( AFMLS ) of the DOJ . The East African Embassy employees previously had obtained civil judgments against the Governments of Sudan and Iran following a bench trial before Judge John D . Bates in U . S . District Court for the District of Columbia . Our Petition for Remission to the DOJ sought a portion of the fine and forfeiture to be paid by BNP Paribas pursuant to its guilty plea in May 2014 for the willful , criminal violation of U . S . sanctions against Sudan and Iran . Leadership of AFMLS in 2014 was favorably disposed to the Petition , as an initial matter .
AFMLS leadership , however , changed by the time of the sentencing of BNP Paribas in 2015 . As a result , AFMLS rejected our Petition . That led us to consider alternative means to recover from wrongdoers who had assisted Sudan and Iran in circumventing U . S . national security sanctions .
Steven Pelak
We then determined to write draft legislation which would establish a fund to satisfy U . S . court judgments held by terrorism victims against Iran , Sudan and other designated state sponsors of terrorism . The underlying principle of the draft legislation was that the fund would be financed by fines , penalties and forfeitures paid by corporate entities and individuals which had been found to have violated U . S . national security sanctions imposed upon Iran and other state sponsors of terrorism .
64 acamstoday . org