Jeremy Paner Quoted in Compliance Week on Risks for Doing Business in Mexico

Aug. 7, 2025 – Jeremy Paner was quoted in a Compliance Week article on the risks for corporations doing business in Mexico after the Trump administration designated Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations in February.

In the article, Paner discusses specific language used by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in a June sanction of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), and how with this language U.S. authorities are demonstrating how deeply they believe cartels have embedded themselves in the Mexican economy.

Paner told Compliance Weekly it isn’t a stretch to say that the U.S. government considers the Mexican Navy to be an agent of the CJNG, because the Navy is in charge of a $3 billion expansion of the port, and the port, according to OFAC, is controlled by CJNG.

“They have an obligation to explain that line,” Paner said of OFAC in the article.

Paner also described how U.S. and foreign corporations moving products through the Port of Manzanillo need to take extra precautions to ensure they are not enriching cartels.

“If your business sends product through that port, you should ask your personnel about any special arrangements, and whether they might have a connection to the cartel,” Paner said. “Anything that is not an arm’s length transaction deserves a hard look.”

Read the article.