Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., introduced a bill Sept. 30 that would allow the president to use International Emergency Economic Powers Act sanctions against transnational criminal organizations that conduct large-scale cyber scams targeting Americans.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of what it said are scam centers operating across Southeast Asia, saying they steal billions of dollars from Americans using forced labor and violence. The designations target people, companies and centers operating in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar, a "notorious hub for virtual currency investment scams," as well as 10 centers and affiliated people and entities in Cambodia.
Delisting decisions at the Office of Foreign Assets Control are increasingly being driven by outside voices, leading to removals that lack transparency and interagency discussion, a former OFAC official said.
The EU will buy at least $40 billion worth of advanced American AI chips, will strengthen cooperation on export controls and investment screening, and will eliminate tariffs on U.S. industrial and other goods, the two sides said as part of a trade framework announced this week. The EU also committed to "substantially” increase purchases of U.S. defense equipment and said it will work to limit adverse effects of new supply chain due diligence rules and carbon border taxes on U.S. exporters.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., called on the Bureau of Industry and Security Aug. 14 to return China’s Institute of Forensic Science to the BIS Entity List, citing the lab’s "continual and well-documented" human rights abuses.
In a joint statement, the U.S. and Indonesia said Indonesia will accept FDA certificates and prior marketing authorization for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, will exempt U.S. exports of cosmetics and medical devices "from certain requirements," and will exempt U.S. companies from local content requirements.
Robert Silvers, a former DHS official who worked on forced labor enforcement, China policy and issues related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., joined Ropes & Gray. Silvers will co-chair the firm’s national security practice, where he will focus on “critical matters at the intersection of national security, technology, and law,” it said. He left DHS in December after serving as undersecretary for policy and chair of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force.
China’s State Council this week released a white paper on economic and trade relations with the U.S., criticizing the U.S. government’s imposition of tariffs and export controls and saying that the two sides should strive toward “mutually beneficial cooperation.” The white paper seeks to “clarify the facts about China-US economic and trade relations and illustrate China's policy stance on relevant issues,” it says, according to an unofficial translation.
The State Department released its Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act annual report for 2024, detailing actions it took to impose Magnitsky sanctions last year, including 70 foreign person designations. Those designations represent "the most geographically expansive set of designations to date," the agency said, targeting more than 19 countries from "nearly every major geographic region." The report lists each of the designations and why they were designated.
Thailand on Feb. 27 returned to China at least 40 Uyghurs that had been detained in Thailand for years, despite calls from the U.S. officials not to do so and threats of possible sanctions by lawmakers.