Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Congress, federal agencies and state bar associations should work together on new regulations to ensure U.S. lawyers aren't enabling Russia-related sanctions evasion, Stanford Law School lecturer Erik Jensen and a host of law students recommended in a recent report.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated Russian national Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Beloglazovand and three of his companies for their involvement in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska evade U.S. sanctions. OFAC said the scheme was meant to unfreeze more than $1.5 billion worth of shares belonging to Deripaska.
The U.S. this week sanctioned 11 people and entities supporting the Bashar al-Assad-led government in Syria, including companies that ship illegal drugs. OFAC said the designations target traffickers of Captagon -- the brand name of a “highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant” trafficked in the Middle East and Europe -- along with entities helping Syria evade sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 entities and two people with ties to Russia’s financial services and technology industries for offering services to evade U.S. sanctions. OFAC said many of the companies operate blockchain-based services that allow virtual currency payments in Russia’s financial sector, “thus enabling potential sanctions evasion.”
The U.S. announced a new set of sweeping Russia-related export controls and sanctions last week to mark the two-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and to respond to Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny's death in prison. The measures include nearly 100 additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, more than 500 sanctions designations by the Treasury and State departments and new government guidance, including a new business advisory to warn companies about Russia-related compliance risks.
Behrouz Mokhtari of McLean, Virginia, and Tehran pleaded guilty Jan. 9 to two conspiracies to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran "by engaging in business activities on behalf of Iranian entities" without getting a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ announced Jan. 9. Mokhtari will forfeit money, property and assets obtained from the schemes, including a Campbell, California, home, and a money judgment of over $2.8 million, DOJ said. The defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison for each of the two conspiracy counts.
Electronics distribution company Broad Tech System and its president and owner, Tao Jiang of Riverside, California, pleaded guilty Jan. 11 to participating in a conspiracy to illegally ship chemicals made or distributed by a Rhode Island-based company to a Chinese firm with ties to the Chinese military, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island announced. Jiang and Broad Tech admitted to violating the Export Control Act and conspiring to commit money laundering.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned eight North Korean agents for their work facilitating sanctions evasion – six of them based in third countries – in an action the agency said comes in response to a recent military reconnaissance satellite launch by North Korea. The North Korean agents, including Russia-based Un Hyok Choe and Myong So, China-based Myong Chol Jang and Phyong Guk Kang, and Iran-based Kyong Il Kang and Sung Il Ri, engage in revenue generation and missile-related technology procurement in support of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program, OFAC said.