The Biden administration should impose Global Magnitsky sanctions against leading Chinese surveillance company Hikvision for its role in human rights violations against Uyghurs in China, Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Gregory Meeks, D.N.Y., said this week. The lawmakers, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked President Joe Biden to tell the committee within 120 days whether Hikvision meets criteria for sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, pointing to the company’s “clear track record in enabling international recognized human rights violations in Xinjiang.”
Although many of the U.S. sanctions against Russia have been in place for months, companies are still dealing with a range of compliance challenges, Crowell & Moring trade lawyers said this week, especially involving Russia-related service restrictions. They also said they don’t expect the pace of sanctions to slow anytime soon, especially as the U.S. ramps up enforcement efforts this year.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will increase the number of penalties it issues against corporations for export violations this year, an effort it hopes will lead to improved industry compliance, the top export BIS enforcement official said last week. DOJ also will concentrate more resources on targeting export violators, a top agency official said, and plans to significantly expand its Export Control Section.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published previously issued general licenses under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of each license appears in the notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned eight Mexican companies linked to a scam involving “timeshare fraud” on behalf of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, a “violent” Mexican drug trafficking organization. The agency also issued new guidance to alert industry about the scam and other schemes, including one involving people falsely claiming to represent OFAC and requesting payments through phone calls and emails.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently reintroduced several bills that could lead to sanctions against China and North Korea:
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published two sets of previously issued general licenses under its Venezuela sanctions regime. The full text of each license appears in the respective notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three entities and two people “illicitly generating revenue” for North Korea. The designations target Chilsong Trading Corp., a North Korean government trading company, and Korea Paekho Trading Corp., a government-controlled company that conducts art and construction projects for “regimes” throughout the Middle East and Africa. OFAC also sanctioned Hwang Kil Su, Pak Hwa Song and their Democratic Republic of the Congo-based company, Congo Aconde SARL, which earns revenue from construction and statue-building projects with local governments.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined an Indian tobacco manufacturer $332,500 this week for violating U.S. sanctions against North Korea. Mumbai-based Godfrey Phillips India Limited (GPI), which didn’t voluntarily disclose the violations, settled with OFAC after the company used U.S. banks to receive payments for indirect tobacco shipments to North Korea, OFAC said, and used third-party companies to try to hide the payments’ connection to North Korea.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated an existing China-related entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The entry is for Hebei Atun Trading Co., a company sanctioned by OFAC in 2021 for its involvement in fentanyl precursor chemical sales and falsifying chemical shipment details.