Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who also led the World Bank, told an Atlantic Council audience that he doesn't think sanctions on Russia if it invades Ukraine is a particularly useful approach. "Sanctions have a mixed history," he said. "They tend to be most effective as a tool when they’re narrowly focused," such as with export controls. "To be blunt, people often apply them because they’re not sure what else they’re ready to do … but they want to signal their displeasure," he said during the Jan. 19 webinar. He suggested that if the U.S., Canada and Europe offered to invest in Ukraine with an eye to improving its economy and as a carrot to improve its governance, that could be more effective.
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Switzerland sanctioned six individuals and three entities linked to the private Russian military organization the Wagner Group, aligning it with EU actions. Now subject to Switzerland's Russia sanctions list are Dimitriy Valerievich Utkin, Denis Yurievich Kharitonov and Sergey Vladimirovich Shcherbakov, while Aleksandr Sergeevich Kuznetsov was added to the Libya sanctions list. Andrey Nikolaevich Troshev, Andrey Mikhailovich Bogatov, Velada LLC, Mercury LLC and Evro Polis LLC were added to Switzerland's Syria sanctions list. In imposing its sanctions in December 2021, the EU said the Wagner Group has trained and sent private military operatives to hot spots around the world to fuel violence and intimidate civilians, among other things, in violation of international law (see 2112130009).
Kambiz Attar Kashani, a citizen of both the U.S. and Iran, has been charged with conspiring to illegally export U.S. goods, technology and services to the Iranian government, and others, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said. A complaint was unsealed in the district court revealing the nature of the charges against Kashani and the extent of his alleged malfeasance. According to the complaint, Kashani conspired to ship goods, including two subscriptions to proprietary computer software, multiple fixed attenuators, six power supplies and various storage systems, to the Central Bank of Iran -- an entity recognized by the Treasury Department as an agency of the Iranian government and thus classified as a Specially Designated National. The complaint said that CBI provided assistance to "Lebanese Hizballah, a terrorist organization, and to the Qods Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps." Kashani allegedly arranged for the transshipping schemes while acting as the principal for two United Arab Emirates front companies. The defendant used the companies to procure electronic goods and technology from various U.S. technology companies for the CBI without obtaining the proper Office of Foreign Asset Control licenses, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The U.N. Security Council on Jan. 17 removed three entries from its ISIL (Da’esh) and al‑Qaida Sanctions List. The council deleted the entries for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia and Indonesia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Jan. 18 sanctioned three people and one entity for acting as “financial facilitators” for Hezbollah. OFAC said Adel Diab, Ali Mohamad Daoun and Jihad Salem Alame -- founders of the Lebanon-based travel agency Dar Al Salam for Travel & Tourism -- help support the terrorist group through goods or services. Diab and Alame are Hezbollah members, and Daoun is a Hezbollah official, OFAC said.
The U.S. and the European Union should use the Trade and Technology Council to address a host of export control harmonization issues to help ease export compliance challenges for American and European companies, the Information Technology Industry Council said. ITI -- which represents many of the world’s largest technology companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google and Intel -- said an increasing number of export regulations and restrictions are placing too heavy a burden on industry and could impede global innovation.
A group of non-European Union countries aligned themselves with a series of EU sanctions decisions, the European Council said in several news releases. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Georgia adopted the EU's decisions to extend its Syria sanctions regime until June 1 and update the information for a listed individual. Montenegro, Albania, Norway and Ukraine aligned themselves with the EU's December decision to amend the list of individuals and entities subject to the sanctions regime relating to actions undermining the territorial independence of Ukraine.
The European Union extended its economic sanctions targeting certain economic sectors in Russia relating to the situation in Ukraine for another six months, until July 31, the European Council said Jan. 13. The sanctions were initially imposed in 2014 following Russia's failure to fully implement the Minsk Agreements that were negotiated to end fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine. As part of this sanctions regime, the EU has also imposed individual restrictive measures in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol along with its destabilization efforts toward Ukraine.
The Russian Arbitration Association released the results of its survey looking into the impact of sanctions on commercial arbitration. The survey results showed that 21% of the respondents said they were aware of situations wherein arbitration institutions refused to administer cases due to sanctions and that 5% of respondents said they knew of cases wherein these institutions or their banks were unable to accept payments from sanctioned individuals or entities. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents reported using neutral currencies for contract payments, and 18% said they knew of cases wherein arbitrators refused to act in a case that involved a sanctioned party. RAA said the survey was "conducted among 182 respondents from various jurisdictions."