The U.S. fined an Italian animation company $538,000 after it violated U.S. sanctions by outsourcing work to an animation studio owned by the North Korean government, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an enforcement release. The company, Mondo TV, illegally used U.S. banks to send money to the studio through wire transfers, OFAC said.
Joly Germine of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally export firearms to Haiti and for laundering money paid for U.S. hostages held by the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo, DOJ announced.
A bipartisan group of five lawmakers urged congressional leaders in a June 25 letter to schedule House and Senate floor time on a bill that would allow Ukraine to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian assets forfeited due to export control or sanctions violations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed more than 50 entries from its Specially Designated National List that were originally added for counter-narcotics reasons. The entries include people and companies based in Colombia and Mexico. The agency didn’t release more information.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned about 50 entities and people, including a “sprawling” shadow banking network, used by Iran’s military to access the international financial system. Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have used the network to process billions of dollars since 2020, OFAC said, and use various exchange houses and foreign “cover companies” to “disguise the revenue they generate abroad,” which they then use to buy and develop advanced weapons systems.
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Indiana University will avoid a fine but must meet several government-imposed export compliance commitments after it illegally exported genetically modified fruit flies carrying a controlled toxin, the Bureau of Industry and Security announced this week. The school voluntarily disclosed the illegal exports and admitted to 42 violations of the Export Administration Regulations, BIS said, which helped IU avoid a monetary penalty.
The Council of the European Union on June 24 sanctioned six people for cyberattacks on information systems involving "critical infrastructure, critical state functions, the storage or processing of classified information and government emergency response teams in EU member states." The individuals include members of Callisto, a group of Russian military intelligence offers carrying out cyber operations on EU member states and third countries. Others include members of the Armageddon hacker group, which is backed by Russia's Federal Security Service, and two developers of the Conti, Trickbot and Wizard Spider malwares.
The State Department announced three-year debarments this week against 16 people convicted of violating U.S. export control laws. All 16 are “generally ineligible” to participate in activity controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations for three years following their dates of conviction. At the end of that period, they must apply to be reinstated from their debarment before engaging in ITAR activities.
The House of Representatives this week plans to consider a bill that would impose sanctions on foreign persons who engage in or facilitate forced organ harvesting in China. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act in June 2023 (see 2306160009), and the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved it on a 33-0 vote later that month (see 2306260022).