The Treasury Department this week sanctioned 10 people and six entities in Iran and Russia involved in trading Iranian weapons and drones, along with four vessels delivering those shipments. The State Department also designated various shipping companies and vessels, including Iran Air, which the agency said is being used to move Western-origin goods to Russia.
The U.S. this week sanctioned three people, five companies and two vessels involved in smuggling oil and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) for Hezbollah, and it updated a sanctions advisory for the maritime energy shipping industry to highlight risks from shipments to Syria.
The U.S. is imposing export penalties against three Chinese companies, a Pakistani company and a Chinese national for their involvement in “missile technology proliferation activities,” the State Department said in a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register Sept. 12.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control unveiled an interim final rule this week that will extend the agency’s sanctions-related record-keeping requirements from five years to 10 years. The rule, effective in mid-March, will align the agency’s record-keeping rules with a similar expansion of the statute of limitations for civil and criminal violations of U.S. sanctions as part of a bill passed by Congress and signed into law earlier this year (see 2407220022 and 2404290071).
Christopher Stagg, an export control lawyer and former official with the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, started a new role as assistant editor at Bartlett's Annotated International Traffic in Arms Regulations, he announced on LinkedIn. The regularly updated publication is run by trade lawyer Jim Bartlett and includes ITAR-related footnotes, appendixes with statutes, court cases, consent agreements, government guidance and user aids.
The European Commission this week updated its Russia-related sanctions frequently asked questions, including guidance on the restrictions that apply to people and companies providing services to Russia. The updated FAQs cover how sanctions apply in the context of aggregate ownership (page 25); firewalls, which stop a sanctioned person from exercising control over a non-sanctioned EU company, allowing that company to continue normal business operations (page 39); and how sanctions apply to services provided as an employee of an EU mother company to a Russian subsidiary (page 349).
The U.S. on Sept. 5 unsealed an indictment against Sam Bhambhani, a North Attleboro, Massachusetts, resident and salesman for an unnamed laser source supplier, for allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. export controls and smuggling goods from the U.S. by sending laser welding machines to Russia. Also named in the indictment was Maxim Teslenko, a Russian citizen, who "acted as a reseller of laser equipment to the Russian government."
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, denied claims that President Joe Biden has been too soft on Iran, saying the Biden administration has imposed more sanctions on Iran than its predecessor.
The U.K. on Sept. 10 added three entries to its Russian sanctions regime and seven people and entities to its Iran sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced in a pair of notices.
The U.S. this week sanctioned nine Mexicans and 26 Mexico-based entities with ties to a network that steals fuel to generate revenue for the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, a sanctioned Mexican drug trafficking group. The network has generated “tens of millions of dollars” for the cartel through fuel theft from Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, Pemex, including by illegally drilling taps into fuel pipelines, stealing from refineries and hijacking tanker trucks, the Treasury Department said.