Two U.S. Navy servicemembers, Jinchao Wei and Wenheng Zhao, were arrested in California as part of two separate cases for "transmitting sensitive military information" to China, DOJ announced Aug. 3.
Investors in Mississippi's public employees' retirement system sued Seagate Technology Holdings for deceiving its investors and causing them to buy Seagate stock at "artificially inflated prices" related to its conduct in illegally exporting hard disk drives to China. (Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi v. Seagate Technology Holdings, N.D. Cal. # 3:23-03711).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in a July opinion, reversed a California district court's decision acquitting Yi-Chi Shih, an employee at China-based firm Chengdu RML, of conspiracy to violate export control laws via his export of semiconductors to China. Judges Andrew Hurwitz and Ryan Nelson said "a rational factfinder could find that the exported [monolithic microwave integrated circuits] were not exempt from the [Export Administration Regulations] as fundamental research."
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed its temporary denial order for a Venezuela-based cargo airline after saying it continues to try to violate U.S. export restrictions and the terms of the TDO. BIS said Empresa de Transporte Aereocargo del Sur, also known as Aerocargo del Sur Transportation or Emtrasur, has demonstrated "continued disregard" for U.S. export controls.
The Federal Reserve Board on July 19 fined Deutsche Bank, its New York branch and other U.S. affiliates $186 million for violating two consent orders with the bank dealing with sanctions compliance and anti-money laundering controls. The board said Deutsche Bank "made insufficient remedial progress" under the two orders and had insufficient "anti-money laundering internal controls and governance processes" stemming from its past relationship with the bank's Estonian branch.
Paul Goldfinch, a sanctioned former board member at Russian financial institution Bank Otkritie, filed suit on July 17 at the District Court for the District of Columbia over the government's failure to render a decision on his delisting petition. The banker, listing the State and Treasury Departments as defendants, said he resigned after Bank Otkritie was listed in February 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the government has stalled on finding that he has satisfied its delisting requirements (Paul Goldfinch v. Antony J. Blinken, D.D.C. # 23-02045).
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week revoked export privileges for two people after they illegally exported firearms and other items from the U.S.
Vadim Konoshchenok, a Russian citizen allegedly linked to Russia's Federal Security Service, appeared before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on July 14 on charges of conspiracy related to a "global procurement and money laundering" scheme to benefit the Russian state, the U.S. Attorney's Office for that district announced. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.
DOJ this week indicted Gal Luft, former co-director of a Maryland think tank, on charges related to “multiple international criminal schemes,” including arms trafficking and violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The agency said Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who worked at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, for “years” worked as a Chinese agent to “advance the interests” of the Chinese government, including by acting as a middleman in a range of illegal weapons and oil deals.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's bid to dismiss the government's claim that the infamous crypto-exchange executive violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's anti-bribery provision (U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00673).