Chinese nationals Han Li and Lin Chen were charged for their role in a conspiracy to illegally export controlled U.S. technology to Chinese end users, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Export Administration Regulations, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced.
Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a letter called on President Joe Biden to increase enforcement of Iran sanctions, especially in the lucrative oil and gas sector, to reduce the revenue Tehran has available to “fund aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and beyond,” the lawmakers said last week.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., urged the Commerce Department last week to immediately revoke all export licenses to China’s Huawei, saying the Bureau of Industry and Security is allowing a foreign adversary's company to obtain too much advanced U.S. technology.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea have formally launched the Disruptive Technology Protection Network to share information and best practices on keeping sensitive technology out of the hands of adversaries, the Bureau of Industry and Security announced April 26. The kickoff occurred during an April 25 trilateral summit in Washington, D.C. The network, which the countries' leaders last year agreed to form, is based on the Disruptive Technology Strike Force that BIS launched with DOJ in February 2023 to pool resources for investigating export control violations (see 2302160019).
The Commerce Department should start preparing export controls for dual-use artificial intelligence models, which could prevent those models from being used to make biosecurity weapons or skirt U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductors, researchers told the agency in comments released this month. But technology companies and industry groups warned the U.S. against overbroad controls, which they said could hurt American AI innovation.
The Commerce Department announced new export restrictions April 26 that it says are intended to reduce the risk that firearms end up in the hands of criminals, terrorists or cartels.
Luxembourg authorities on April 23 assessed an over $841,000 administrative fine against wealth management firm Fuchs & Associés Finance S.A. for anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance violations.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized the Biden administration April 25 for reportedly planning to sanction a battalion of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for alleged human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank (see 2404220047). Rubio said in a statement that the designation would “stigmatize the entire IDF” and “encourage” terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah and their Iranian government backers.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, and four Democratic senators urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to reverse a district court judge’s ruling that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an interview with Reuters, said that while in her view, outright seizure of frozen Russian assets in the U.S. and Europe is justifiable, that's not the only option to put those assets to use to help Ukraine's economy survive the Russian invasion.