The U.K. issued a general license July 1 authorizing sanctioned parties to make certain payments "owed or due" to "His Majesty's Revenue & Customs; the Welsh Revenue Authority; and Revenue Scotland." The license also allows individuals acting on behalf of sanctioned parties to make these payments. Payment details must be reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation within 10 working days of the payment being made. The license took effect July 1 and runs indefinitely.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Bureau of Industry and Security denied, revoked or didn't take action on about one-third of all license applications involving Chinese companies on the Entity List between 2018 and 2023, according to a snapshot of licensing data released by BIS July 2.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added six entities to the Entity List for either helping to train China’s military, evading U.S. government end-use checks or shipping export-controlled items to Russia. The agency also updated its Unverified List, adding 13 new parties and removing eight others, including one Russian company that it transferred to the Entity List earlier this year. Both rules took effect July 3.
Neil MacBride, general counsel for the Treasury Department since February 2022, left the agency last week, he announced on LinkedIn. MacBride helped advise Treasury on issues relating to sanctions and terrorism finance, financial crimes enforcement and more, according to the department.
Although China isn’t yet directly shipping weapons and other armaments to Russia’s military, Beijing is “making, in effect, investments in Russia's defense industrial base in ways that are allowing it to continue” its war against Ukraine, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking during a July 1 event hosted by the Brookings Institution. He said 70% of the machine tools and 90% of the microelectronics being imported by Russia are coming from China.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on July 1 updated its “Don’t Let This Happen to You!” guidance, a 78-page compilation of enforcement cases involving criminal and administrative export violations. Added cases involve violations of U.S. antiboycott regulations, firearms export violations, export violations related to China and Iran, noncompliance with a BIS settlement agreement, and a recent voluntary disclosure submitted by Indiana University involving illegal exports of genetically modified fruit flies (see 2406250022). “Exporters are encouraged to review the publication, which provides useful illustrations of the type of conduct that gets companies and universities in trouble,” BIS said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned one person in Mexico and two in China for their ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexican drug trafficking group. The designations target Mexico-based Diego Acosta Ovalle, who helped the cartel hide and collect drug trafficking money, and China-based Tong Peiji and He Jiaxuan, members of a U.S.-based Chinese money laundering organization that has laundered illegal drug proceeds belonging to the Sinaloa Cartel.
The EU on June 29 expanded its sanctions on Belarus for its role in Russia's war in Ukraine to better align it with the restrictions imposed on Russia and address sanctions evasion issues, including by requiring companies to insert a “no-Belarus clause” in their contracts.
The Federal Maritime Commission is looking to revoke a Miami freight forwarder’s ocean transportation intermediary license after its owners illegally exported nearly 600 stolen outboard motors from the U.S., including by providing false shipping documents to CBP. The company, Netcycle Trading, told the FMC it should be allowed to keep the license, but the FMC is asking its administrative law judge to rule against the forwarder after its president submitted “misleading” comments to the commission that downplayed her role in the scheme.