You are a successful lawyer working in the New York office of a global law firm advising international clients all around the world on international commercial transactions and contracts as well as US economic and trade sanctions. One of your Swiss colleagues sitting in the firm’s Geneva office calls you to explain that he has received a request from a very good Swiss client, Red Gold SA, who is willing to get advice on the best way to enter into a strategical partnership with an Iranian partner active in the exploitation and packaging of Saffron. Red Gold SA aims indeed to make a significant investment to support the exploitation of Safran by its prospective Iranian partner and expects to export the major part of the Saffron produced and packaged in Iran to Switzerland.

Red Gold SA has provided the following factual information regarding the project: 1. The name of the Iranian company which would be the main partner in the project is Rowhani Saffron. 2. Rowhani Saffron works together with several local Iranian farmers who have their own exploitation fields. 3. Red Gold SA would prefer to establish a direct presence on the ground to be able to keep control over the local operations in Iran. Red Gold SA remains flexible however to adopt an alternative way if the establishment of a direct presence would not be recommended currently. 4. Red Gold SA is a Swiss company that has no subsidiaries in the US. 5. Red Gold SA aims to ask its main bank, HSBC in Geneva, for a credit to finance the project. Your Swiss colleague asks you very kindly whether you could work together with him on that case advising the Swiss client on the best way to implement its project and the associated risks. He has to provide the client with a high-level note of a maximum of two pages until the end of the week. Note to the students: please present your answers in the form of a high-level note of a maximum of two pages including the advice to the Swiss client on the best way to implement the project and the associated risks.