Dali Bagrou, of Alpharetta, Georgia, and owner of World Mining and Oil Supply, was sentenced to 51 months in prison accompanied by three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. national security laws, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. World Mining was sentenced to five years' probation.
The U.S. and the European Union are preparing to impose more sanctions against the Alexander Lukashenko regime in Belarus for human rights violations, according to multiple reports. The U.S. sanctions are expected to be closely coordinated with the EU, CNN reported Nov. 10. The EU sanctions could come as soon as this week and may target around 30 people and entities, including the Belarusian airline Belavia, Reuters reported Nov. 10. The White House didn’t comment. The U.S. in August expanded its sanctions authority against Belarus and issued a host of new designations targeting the country’s government for last year’s illegitimate presidential elections (see 2108090033).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Nov. 12 deleted 10 people and 33 entities from its Specially Designated Nationals List that were sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The sanctions were removed from entries located in Mexico, Colombia and Panama after they "demonstrated a change in behavior" or there was a change in " circumstances," an OFAC spokesperson said. The person added that most of the companies removed from the SDN List "are defunct or have been seized by foreign governments" and "are not independently linked to any individuals who remain on the SDN List."
Qualcomm supports “targeted and rule-based export controls” as one of several long-term federal policy recommendations for curing the semiconductor shortage, the chipmaker told the Bureau of Industry and Security in comments posted Nov. 10. Washington should “control emerging technologies,” consistent with the 2018 Export Control Reform Act, by imposing targeted and rule-based export controls and avoid disrupting semiconductor supply, especially in legacy node chipsets,” Qualcomm said. “Unilateral controls would only hinder Qualcomm and other U.S. companies from selling in foreign markets, undermining their R&D investments and disadvantaging them against their foreign competitors.” Some international rivals already have “both the technology capability and funding to develop global leadership in these areas,” it said. Submissions to BIS were due Nov. 8 for the agency's September request for information as it prepares a report to the White House on the chip shortage and semiconductor supply chain issues (see 2109230018).
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 12 issued a new 16-page guidance on its recently issued export controls on certain cybersecurity items, which take effect Jan. 19 (see 2110200036). The guidance includes 29 frequently asked questions on how the items will be controlled, how BIS defines certain control terms, when licenses are required for cybersecurity exports and more. The FAQs also define the term “government end-user” under new License Exception Authorized Cybersecurity Exports (ACE), and list situations when a license requirement is triggered for cybersecurity exports, when universities may need a license for teaching and training, and when certain carve-outs apply.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week issued the first designations under the recently established Ethiopian and Eritrean sanctions regime (see 2109170036), targeting four entities and two people for contributing to the two countries' ongoing conflict. OFAC also issued a general license authorizing certain transactions with two of the sanctioned entities and published two new frequently asked questions.
Akin Gump promoted export controls and economic sanctions senior counsel Kim Myers to partner in the Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced. In her practice, Myers helps clients obtain required authorizations, identify opportunities to implement compliance solutions and "operationalize trade compliance programs," the firm said.
The European Union announced that 10 third countries have aligned themselves with the EU's sanctions on Nicaragua. The third countries are North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
The European Commission updated the European Union dual-use export control list, bringing the list in line with decisions taken under the framework for the international nonproliferation regimes and export control agreements until December 2020, the commission said. The update consists of two main changes. The first includes a note for the control of biocontainment chambers, isolators or biological safety cabinets to include any isolator meeting all the mentioned characteristics in the description of the item, regardless of intended use, the commission said. The second altered the definition of "superalloys" to specify the ultimate tensile strength of the alloys. The new definition defines superalloys as "nickel, cobalt or iron base alloys having a stress rupture life greater than 1 000 hours at 400 MPa and an ultimate tensile strength greater than 850 MPa, at 922 K (649oC) or higher."
A Vietnamese oil tanker that was seized by Iran was released after being drained of its oil, having been seen in open water on Nov. 10, the Associated Press reported. Data the AP obtained from MarineTraffic.com showed that the ship, called The Sothys, left Iran's Bandar Abbas port and reached international waters in the Gulf of Oman, appearing to be anchored in the open waters. Iran's state-run IRNA news station said that the Revolutionary Guard Corps released the tanker after draining the alleged Iranian oil from it, under court order. The ship was suspected of shipping sanctioned Iranian oil to Asia.