A Russian citizen living in North Georgia, Feliks Medvedev, was sentenced on Oct. 2 to three years and 10 months in prison for conducting an "unlicensed money transmitting business," which saw the transfer of over $150 million in Russian money. Medvedev was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison sentence and told to pay a $10,000 fine, DOJ said.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
The EU General Court on Oct. 2 upheld the validity of the EU prohibition on the provision of legal advisory services to the Russian government and to entities established in Russia. The court said the sanction doesn't undermine the right of all persons to be advised by a lawyer for "conducting, pre-empting or anticipating judicial proceedings."
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Oct. 1 added two new frequently asked questions to provide guidance on how sanctions apply to Russia-related securities settlements and trust services.
The U.K.’s Department for Business & Trade will soon remove a “licensing consideration” that outlines a pathway for U.K. companies to apply for a license to provide certain services to their Russian subsidiaries, the agency announced this week. Beginning Oct. 31, the U.K. will remove wording from its statutory guidance on Russia sanctions that described this license, saying it may no longer “be consistent with the aims of the sanctions regime.”
The U.S., U.K. and Australia this week sanctioned a group of people and entities that they said have ties to Russian cybercriminal group Evil Corp., which the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated in 2019 for its international hacking campaigns.
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.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week deleted Prominvestbank, a former Ukrainian bank, from its Specially Designated Nationals List. It was forcibly liquidated by the National Bank of Ukraine after Russia took control of the bank following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The bank remains on OFAC's Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List, which includes people and entities that the agency said are operating in certain significant sectors of the Russian economy. OFAC didn’t release more information.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week renewed a Russia-related general license that authorizes certain transactions involving the Russian Federation's Central Bank, Wealth Fund and Ministry of Finance. General License No. 13K, which replaced 13J, now authorizes those transactions, including taxes, fees, or import duties, through 12:01 a.m. EST Jan. 8. The license was set to expire Oct. 9
The U.K. fined property management company Integral Concierge Services Limited 15,000 British pounds, or about $20,000, for helping a client designated under the U.K.’s Russia sanctions regime manage a residential property. The company was accused of being “unaware” of its sanctions compliance obligations and making “no attempt to educate itself on its legal obligations” after its client was sanctioned.
The Bureau of Industry and Security rejected an appeal from Alexey Sumchenko for a temporary denial order issued against him in June after an administrative law judge said BIS “successfully demonstrated” that the denial order was needed to prevent an “imminent” violation of U.S. export controls.