The U.N. Security Council on Jan. 4 removed five entries from its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida Sanctions. The removals are: Mevlut Kar, Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert, Nayef Salam Muhammad Ujaym Al-Hababi, Turki Mubarak Abdullah Al-Binali and Tuah Febriwansyah.
The SEC should ban sanctioned Chinese companies from being included in indices, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other index funds in U.S. capital markets, the Coalition for a Prosperous America said. The nonprofit group said index providers fail to “consider material risks posed by U.S. national security threats” when they evaluate companies, including whether they are listed under a U.S. sanctions regime or designated on the Commerce Department’s Entity List. “These gaps in oversight and due diligence are afflicting index funds held by scores of millions of unwitting American retail investors -- often through their pension funds -- and elevating the material risks in a manner inconsistent with their proper fiduciary duty," CPA wrote to the SEC in a letter released Jan. 5.
The U.K. added one individual and one entity to its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime, in a Jan. 4 financial sanctions notice. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation placed ISIL senior member Ashraf Al-Qizani and Jund Al-Khilafah, ISIL's wing in Tunisia established in November 2014, on the sanctions list. The two new listings will be subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban. In the same notice, OFSI also delisted the following from the ISIL sanctions regime: Mevlut Kar, Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert, Nayef Salam Muhammad Ujaym Al-Hababi, Turki Mubarak Abdullah Ahmad Al-Binali and Tuah Febriwansyah.
Thea Kendler, President Joe Biden’s choice to be the Bureau of Industry and Security's assistant secretary for export administration, was officially sworn in to her position, BIS said this week. The agency said Kendler will lead Export Administration’s “highly trained technical professionals” in controlling dual-use and military exports, analyzing the impact of those export controls and supporting the U.S. defense industrial base. She also will chair the Advisory Committee on Export Policy, which resolves interagency policy disputes on export license applications submitted to BIS. The Senate confirmed Kendler in December (see 2112150009).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Jan. 5 sanctioned Milorad Dodik, a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and an entity he controls, Alternativna Televizija d.o.o. Banja Luka (ATV), for “destabilizing” activity and corruption. The agency said Dodik uses the ATV a media outlet to “advance his own personal and political goals” and has “funneled money directly from public companies to ATV for corrupt purposes.” OFAC said the designation is the first issued under President Joe Biden’s June executive order that expanded the U.S.’s sanctions authority for people and entities in the Western Balkans (see 2106090030).
China’s Ministry of Commerce recently launched a website dedicated to information about its newly established export control regime, according to an unofficial translation. It features updates about the regulations, compliance training materials, a landing page to check whether a dual-use item is covered by the controls and various guidance documents, including a section on licensing. The website was released alongside China’s new export control white paper, which details how the country has sought to increase export enforcement, coordinate restrictions with allies and improve industry compliance (see 2112290036).
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed its temporary export control on certain artificial intelligence software as it prepares to make the classification permanent, BIS said in a notice. The temporary control -- first issued in January 2020 (see 2001030024), extended last year (see 2101050018) and renewed for a second time this week -- placed unilateral restrictions on geospatial imagery software by adding it to the 0Y521 Temporary Export Control Classification Numbers Series. The latest one-year renewal is effective Jan. 6.
The European Union General Court dropped the sanctions listing of former Ukrainian Minister of Revenue and Taxes Oleksandr Viktorovych Klymenko, annulling actions in March maintaining the designation, according to an unofficial translation. The ruling marks the fifth of its kind. The European Council used Ukraine's investigation of Klymenko for the embezzlement of public funds as the basis for the sanctions listing. The General Court, as it has done in the previous four rulings, said that the council hadn't adequately identified that the investigating judge had respected Klymenko's rights of defense or that the proceedings were being carried out in a reasonable time. This decision ends the matter because the Council didn't renew the sanctions listing in September 2021, an action that occurred after Klymenko in April 2021 initiated the latest petition for annulment of his listing.
The Commerce Department is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation for 2022, the agency said in a Jan. 4 notice. The change increases maximum civil monetary penalties for violations of the Export Controls Act of 2018 from $308,901 to $328,121 Commerce said. The rule is effective Jan. 15.
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