The U.S. on Sept. 5 unsealed an indictment against Sam Bhambhani, a North Attleboro, Massachusetts, resident and salesman for an unnamed laser source supplier, for allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. export controls and smuggling goods from the U.S. by sending laser welding machines to Russia. Also named in the indictment was Maxim Teslenko, a Russian citizen, who "acted as a reseller of laser equipment to the Russian government."
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 House approved several export control-related bills late Sept. 9, including the Remote Access Security Act, which is designed to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely (see 2409040046).
The U.K. on Sept. 10 added three entries to its Russian sanctions regime and seven people and entities to its Iran sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced in a pair of notices.
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 House passed a bill Sept. 9 that would cut off top Chinese leaders and their family members from the U.S. financial system if China takes military action against Taiwan.
The EU Court of Justice on Sept. 5 said that a notary doesn't violate sanctions on Russia by authenticating the sale of a property owned by a non-sanctioned Russian company. The court said that authentication services don't amount to the provision of "legal advisory services," which are barred under EU sanctions if provided to "legal persons established in Russia."
Russia has “secretly” been using India as an alternative market to acquire export-controlled dual-use technologies and has explored building facilities in the country to obtain components for its war against Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Sept. 4. Plans drawn up by the Russian government show the country aimed to use “significant reserves” of rupees collected by Russian banks from oil sales to India to help with the effort, and considered “pumping investment into Russo-Indian electronics development and production facilities,” the report said.
The U.S. sanctioned two shipping companies and two vessels last week for their involvement in exports of liquefied natural gas from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, an energy project sanctioned by the U.S. The designations target Gotik Shipping Co and Plio Energy Cargo Shipping OPC PVT LTD, which are the registered owner and commercial manager, respectively, of LNG carrier New Energy. The U.S. also sanctioned the Mulan, an LNG carrier managed and operated by Pilo Energy.
DOJ on Sept. 5 unsealed two indictments against dual Russian-U.S. citizens Dimitri Simes and Anastasia Simes, residents of Huntly, Virginia, for their role in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, announced Sept. 5 that officials from four large U.S. computing chip manufacturers will testify at a hearing next week on Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. export controls.