The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of what it said are scam centers operating across Southeast Asia, saying they steal billions of dollars from Americans using forced labor and violence. The designations target people, companies and centers operating in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar, a "notorious hub for virtual currency investment scams," as well as 10 centers and affiliated people and entities in Cambodia.
A British bank failed to stop a newly sanctioned person from withdrawing money even after the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation warned the bank beforehand that the person soon would be designated, OFSI said in an enforcement notice released this week.
The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will again renew relaxed export restrictions for certain defense goods and services involving Cyprus, it said in a final rule released this week and effective Oct. 1. The agency has issued the renewal each year since 2020 (see 2309130028), suspending its policy of denial for exports, reexports and transfers of defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List to Cyprus. The move also suspends the policy of denial for retransfers and temporary imports destined for or originating in Cyprus and brokering activities involving Cyprus. The latest renewal expires Sept. 30, 2026.
A new executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump authorizes sanctions and export controls against any country determined to have wrongfully detained U.S. nationals. The order allows the State Department to designate certain foreign countries a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention, which would authorize International Emergency Economic Powers Act sanctions against the country and export controls under the Arms Export Control Act, the Export Control Reform Act “or any other Federal law.”
The Defense Department routinely funds research by Chinese entities that the U.S. government has placed on restricted lists for their ties to China’s military or role in human rights abuses, compromising the value of those designations, the House Select Committee on China said in a new report released Sept. 5.
The Semiconductor Industry Association urged Congress Sept. 5 to reject proposed legislation that it says would impose an “unprecedented expansion” of export controls on advanced AI computing chips.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., proposed an amendment Sept. 4 that would add several export control and sanctions provisions to the pending FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, including a requirement that U.S. manufacturers of advanced AI chips make their products available to American firms before selling them to China and other “countries of concern.”
The U.S.-Japan trade framework released by the White House last week includes commitments to increase cooperation on export controls and investment restrictions, according to a fact sheet.
The Council of the European Union on Sept. 5 sanctioned two people for human rights abuses in detention centers in Crimea. Vadim Bulgakov and Aleksei Pikin are the head and deputy head, respectively, of the Directorate of the Russian Federal Penal Enforcement Service for Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, and are responsible for the prisoners, including political prisoners, the council said. The council's announcement said the "EU does not recognise and continues to condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation as a violation of international law," a move Russia made in 2014.
Although the Bureau of Industry and Security published a rule last month to ease certain export controls on Syria (see 2508280029), it also “retained significant parts” of its long-standing restrictions against the country, which could create new compliance challenges for some exporters, Troutman Pepper said in a client alert.