Jacob Kopnick

U.S. export controls are blocking Huawei's access to evidence that it needs to prepare for its upcoming trial on racketeering, trade secret theft and other charges (see 2002130045), the Chinese technology company said in a court filing last week.

Lithuania's customs authority fined an unnamed Lithuania-registered export company over $14.8 million for violating EU sanctions, according to an unofficial translation. The company exported vehicles to Russia through Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey, and “did not ensure compliance with the restrictions and obligations set by the international sanctions implemented in the Republic of Lithuania,” the customs agency said, adding that it detained and seized six “tractor semi-trailers.” It also said this “is not the first time that such sanctions have been applied to companies for violations of the law on international sanctions,” but didn’t provide more details.

Ljiljana Karadzic, wife of former Serbian President Radovan Karadzic, said the U.S. government's recent sponsorship of a U.N. Security Council Resolution related to petitions for sanctions delisting helps her case that the Office of Foreign Assets Control unreasonably delayed in ruling on her delisting petition (Ljiljana Karadzic v. Bradley Smith, D.D.C. # 23-01226).

The chair and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, along with a bipartisan group of 53 representatives, filed an amicus brief last week in the suit against the TikTok ban to support the constitutionality of the ban (see 2406070023) (TikTok v. Merrick Garland, D.C. Cir. # 24-1113).

The U.K. last week expanded the criteria under which an individual or entity can be sanctioned under the nation's Russia sanctions regime. The changes entered into force July 31. The U.K. may now sanction an individual who directly or indirectly "owns or controls" or is "working as a director (whether executive or non-executive), trustee, or other manager or equivalent of," a sanctioned individual or entity. An individual also can be sanctioned for providing financial services to a sanctioned party. The sanctions amendment also altered the "ship specification criteria" to "specify additional activities" for which a ship may be affected.

A recent federal district court ruling limiting the U.S. anti-smuggling statute to physical goods won't affect export control enforcement efforts on data and other intangible exports sent digitally across borders, lawyers said in interviews. Although the U.S. District Court in Kentucky said a statute barring the unlicensed export of certain merchandise, articles or objects didn't apply to an email with magnet schematics sent to Chinese manufacturers (see 2407290046), lawyers noted that U.S. export control agencies have their own, specific enforcement authorities to regulate those digital transmissions.

Parts of the expert testimony submitted by the U.S. in a criminal export control case should be excluded from the trial because the experts relied on State Department commodity-jurisdiction determinations prepared outside the court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky said July 31. The court said the defendants didn't have a chance to cross-examine the State Department officials who prepared the determinations because they didn't offer testimony during trial.

The Council of the European Union on Aug. 5 sanctioned another 28 people for suppressing human rights in Belarus. The designations target two deputy heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Main Department for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption, which conducts "arbitrary and unlawful arrests" of activists and civil society members, the council said. Members of the judiciary and correctional institutions were also included for "politically motivated sentences" imposed against activists. Others sanctioned include "a group of long-time supporters of" Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, including the host of a news program and chairman of the Youth Council at the National Assembly of Belarus.

The U.K. on Aug. 5 amended a Russia sanctions license allowing designated parties to make certain payments to British billing authorities. The update added a permission to the list of permitted payments, allowing for the payment of fees "owed by or due from UK" sanctioned parties to the billing authorities for "Business Improvement District levies."

Taiwan national Pen Yu was sentenced Aug. 2 to three years and eight months in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud in a scheme to defraud a German biochemical company and divert biochemical products to China using "falsified export documents," DOJ announced. Yu was sentenced by a federal court in Florida, which also ordered the forfeiture of the proceeds of the scheme, which amounted to $100,000.