OFAC Penalty Response — Paid Consultation on Enforcement Notices
A paid consultation with Sherrod Seward, Esq. on an enforcement notice, an apparent violation, or a disclosure decision.
Enforcement correspondence carries short deadlines, and the response window depends on which sanctions program and which part of the regulations your matter falls under rather than on one universal number. Missing it forfeits the response right and the only real chance to put mitigating facts on the record. You will leave the call knowing which authority governs your notice, what the operative deadline actually is, and what the response has to contain.
Before this office can accept a consultation fee on a sanctions matter, it must screen the prospective client and, separately, whoever would be paying. Where a person or entity is blocked, providing legal services and receiving payment for them are two different questions under the sanctions regulations, and the answer to the first does not answer the second. So there is no payment link on this page. Send the enquiry, this office will run the screening, and if a fee can lawfully be accepted you will be told what it is and how to pay it. If it cannot, you will be told that instead.
Sending this form does not engage this office and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Nothing here is an offer to represent any person or entity, and nothing here should be read as a statement that this office is authorised to act for, or to accept payment from, any particular person.
Prefer to speak to someone first? +1 (202) 999-3631
Request a consultation
Six fields. About a minute.
Bring the call one of these
- You have received a notice and need the real deadline confirmed, not guessed.
- You have found an apparent violation and are deciding whether to disclose.
- An administrative subpoena has arrived and a response is due.
- You need the mitigating facts put on the record properly.
- You need to know whether there is criminal exposure here.
The deadline is the first thing, and it is program-specific
There is no single OFAC response window. Different parts of the regulations set different periods, they run from different events — some from the date of service, others from a postmark — and which one governs depends on the program your matter sits under. This is the single most consequential thing to get right and the single easiest thing to get wrong, which is why no number is printed here: the operative period is read out of the operative part, in your matter, at the consultation. Bring the notice itself and the envelope, because the deadline runs from what the paper says rather than from when you read it.
This office has been the plaintiff, not only the drafter
Law Offices of Sherrod Seward, PLLC v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
No. 3:25-cv-00057 (W.D.N.C.), filed January 2025
This office has been the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act case, not only the drafter of the request. When an agency declined to produce records, the firm filed suit in its own name under 5 U.S.C. 552 to compel production.
A pending matter is described here as a fact about this office's own experience. It is not a result, it does not predict anything about any other case, and every case is decided on its own record. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
How it runs
- Send the enquiryThe form below. It takes about a minute and it asks for nothing sensitive.
- ScreeningThis office screens the prospective client and, separately, whoever would pay. On a sanctions matter that has to happen before a fee can be accepted.
- You are told where you standEither what the consultation costs and how to pay it, or that a fee cannot lawfully be accepted here. You will be told plainly which.
- The consultationThe call itself, followed by a written summary of what was decided and the dates that govern it.
Watch first
Questions people actually ask
What do I actually get for the fee?
The $500 is the fee for the consultation itself and for the written summary that follows it. It is not a retainer, and it does not include drafting or filing a FOIA request, an administrative appeal, a licence application, a delisting petition, a federal court complaint, a trademark application, a response to a USPTO office action, or a post-registration maintenance filing - each of those is separately scoped and separately quoted. Government, agency and court filing fees, any agency search, review or duplication fees, and any USPTO filing fees, are not included and are payable to the government, not to this office.
Is this legal advice?
The consultation is. This page is not — it is general information about federal practice, and reading it creates no relationship with this office. Sending this form does not create an attorney-client relationship. No attorney-client relationship is formed until this office and you have signed a written engagement agreement.
Can you tell me what my chances are?
You will get a candid assessment of what your record supports and where it is thin, which is the useful version of that question. What you will not get is a percentage. Every matter is decided on its own record by a government officer or a judge, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What happens if you cannot help?
You will be told so on the call, and told where the matter actually belongs. That happens often enough to be worth saying out loud.
Should I file a voluntary self-disclosure?
It is a real decision with real consequences in both directions, and it is not one to make quickly or alone. A qualifying self-disclosure is treated as a mitigating factor under the enforcement framework, but a disclosure is also a statement to a regulator about conduct that has already happened. The call works through what you actually have before anything is sent anywhere.
Could this become a criminal matter?
It can. Sanctions violations carry criminal as well as civil exposure where the conduct was wilful. If the facts suggest that, the honest answer is that you need criminal counsel alongside or instead of this, and you will be told so plainly rather than signed up.