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.
OFAC sanction activity
The U.S. issued nearly 400 new financial blocking sanctions last week against people and companies in Russia and across Asia, Europe and the Middle East for aiding Russia’s war effort against Ukraine. The designations, issued by the Treasury and State departments, target “numerous” Russia-related procurement and sanctions evasion networks along with businesses involved in the Russian energy and mining industries, supporting the country’s military industrial base, connected to Russian state-owned entities, helping to forcibly re-educate Ukrainian children and more.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week outlined several initiatives it has recently completed or is planning to launch to modernize its website, sanctions guidance, and licensing and compliance applications.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Michel Martelly, the former Haitian president, who “abused his influence” to help drug traffickers move cocaine and other drugs to the U.S., the agency said.
A final rule released Aug. 20 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control adds a new general license for Myanmar and updates “terminology and references” across other sanctions program regulations, OFAC said.
Sanctions compliance departments should consider updating their bookkeeping policies and practices to account for an upcoming expansion to U.S. sanctions-related record-keeping rules, which could lead to higher enforcement risks, Freshfields Bruckhaus said in a client alert last week.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned people, companies and ships for helping to transport oil and commodities on behalf of the Iranian military and for Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iranian-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis. OFAC said the companies and ships have moved goods to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, helping finance the Houthis’ “reckless targeting” of commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new general license this week authorizing certain transactions involving Hong Kong-based VPower Finance Security, a company sanctioned by OFAC in June for its role in a scheme to transport Russian gold and convert it into other currencies. General License 102 authorizes transactions that are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the transportation, delivery, or storage of currency; cash processing services; or maintenance" of ATMS within Hong Kong involving VPower. Those transactions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EST Nov. 12.
Silvaco Group, a California-based company that provides software solutions for semiconductor design, received a cautionary letter from the Office of Foreign Assets Control after disclosing possible sanctions violations involving Russia.
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.