A new compliance note released by the Bureau of Industry and Security this week reveals the types of export violations that universities are most commonly disclosing to BIS, what led to those violations and the steps the academic institutions took to improve their compliance programs. The agency also issued a set of resources it said universities should use for compliance, including lists of risky parties maintained by both the government and outside organizations.
Bulgarian national Milan Dimitrov appeared Aug. 12 in a federal court for allegedly engaging in a scheme to violate U.S. export controls, DOJ announced. Extradited from Greece, Dimitrov is charged with conspiring with Russian citizen Ilias Sabirov and Bulgarian national Dimitar Dimitrov to procure "sensitive radiation-hardened integrated circuits" from the U.S. and export them to Russia via Bulgaria (see 2012210013).
Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott introduced a resolution this month opposing the removal of Cuba from the State Department’s state sponsors of terrorism list.
A bipartisan group of 14 senators urged USDA this week to modernize its process for collecting information on foreign investment in U.S. farmland.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new general license this week authorizing certain transactions involving Hong Kong-based VPower Finance Security, a company sanctioned by OFAC in June for its role in a scheme to transport Russian gold and convert it into other currencies. General License 102 authorizes transactions that are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the transportation, delivery, or storage of currency; cash processing services; or maintenance" of ATMS within Hong Kong involving VPower. Those transactions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EST Nov. 12.
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Canada is considering new measures to strengthen its export controls, tariffs and other trade-related enforcement powers as it analyzes whether it has tools powerful enough to protect against threats to its economic and national security.
Silvaco Group, a California-based company that provides software solutions for semiconductor design, received a cautionary letter from the Office of Foreign Assets Control after disclosing possible sanctions violations involving Russia.
Russian-German national Arthur Petrov was extradited to the U.S., making his initial appearance in court Aug. 9 for allegedly committing export control violations, smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering, DOJ announced. Extradited from Cyprus, Petrov was charged for his part in a scheme to ship more than $225,000 worth of U.S.-sourced microelectronics to companies supplying weapons to the Russian military.
The State Department is seeking public comments on four information collections from the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the agency said in a notice this week. The collections deal with export licenses for unclassified defense articles and related unclassified technical data; license applications for temporary imports of unclassified defense articles; applications for temporary export of unclassified defense articles; and applications to amend those export or temporary import licenses.