Members of Congress need to be mindful of what their proposals to regulate outbound investment might mean for U.S. businesses, one of the experts on a Washington International Trade Association webinar cautioned.
The Treasury Department could use more resources and needs to better recruit and retain employees to implement and enforce its sanctions programs, said Brian Nelson, the agency’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Nelson, speaking during a law conference in Washington last week, said the agency is specifically looking to hire more officials to help it grapple with how best to apply sanctions in the virtual assets space and other emerging industries, including around artificial intelligence.
The U.S. announced a host of new Russia-related sanctions and export controls last week, including more than 300 sanctions designations by the Treasury and State departments and an expansion of Commerce Department export controls on items destined to Russia and entities supporting the country’s military. The measures, some of which were coordinated with allies as part of the Group of 7 summit in Japan, aim to “further undermine Russia’s capacity to wage its illegal aggression” in Ukraine, the G-7 countries said in a May 19 joint statement.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published previously issued General License O under its Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations. The full text of the license is available in the notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control reached a $3.3 million settlement this week with a California-based skincare company and a $175,000 settlement with its former unnamed senior executive for illegal exports to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. Murad, owned by multinational company Unilever, worked with distributors in Iran and the United Arab Emirates to ship goods to Iran, leading to at least 62 exports worth more than $11 million, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control amended and replaced its South Sudan Sanctions Regulations to “further implement” a 2014 executive order. The new, “more comprehensive” set of regulations includes “additional interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions that will provide further guidance to the public,” OFAC said. The changes take effect May 18.
A series of export control indictments announced this week, including several for illegal shipments to China and Russia, only scratched the surface of prosecutions expected to be brought as part of the new Disruptive Technology Strike Force, said Matthew Axelrod, the Bureau of Industry and Security's top export enforcement official. “It’s just the beginning,” Axelrod said during a May 17 law conference hosted by the American Bar Association, Mayer Brown and American University. “I think you can expect to continue to see actions come out from the strike force as this work continues.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published a previously issued general license under its Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations. The notice includes the full text of the license, which authorizes certain transactions involving Tabacos USA, Tabacalera del Este or any entity they own by 50% or more (see 2303310033).
U.S. and EU sanctions authorities met April 26-28 to share best practices surrounding sanctions “design, implementation and compliance,” the Treasury Department said May 16. During the “technical” meetings -- held between officials with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the European External Action Service and the European Commission -- the agencies “identified ways to align” sanctions implementation, promote compliance, improve enforcement and “address shared foreign policy challenges,” Treasury said. They also discussed ways to ensure sanctions don’t prevent humanitarian aid. “The partners have been working together to provide coordinated information to the compliance community and will continue to update and maintain their sanctions-related lists and published guidance,” Treasury said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Russian national Mikhail Matveev for helping to launch cyberattacks against U.S. law enforcement, businesses and critical infrastructure. Matveev is a “central figure” in the development and deployment of several Russia-linked “ransomware variants,” OFAC said, including Hive, LockBit and Babuk. OFAC said the designation was announced alongside an indictment by DOJ and a $10 million reward by the State Department for information that leads to Matveev’s arrest or conviction.