Japanese authorities last week arrested the representative of a trading company for allegedly illegally exporting controlled items subject to sanctions on Russia, Baker McKenzie said in a client alert. The Russian citizen's arrest marks the first of its kind in Japan involving illicit exports to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, urged the Commerce Department this month to make several changes to “strengthen” the Bureau of Industry and Security’s new interim rule restricting firearms exports.
When Bloomberg asked former President Donald Trump if he has thought about easing or eliminating sanctions on Russia as part of a peace settlement in Ukraine if he is reelected, the Republican nominee replied, "Yeah. So what we’re doing with sanctions is we’re forcing everyone away from us. So I don’t love sanctions. I found them very useful with Iran, but I didn’t even need sanctions with Iran so much. I told China that and Russia is in a similar position."
The Bureau of Industry and Security has completed a round of interagency review for a proposed rule that could lead to changes to the Export Administration Regulations to “control U.S. persons support of security end users and end uses.” The rule also “proposes restrictions on exports, re-exports, and transfers (in-country) to these end users and end uses,” BIS said. The agency completed its interagency review July 12.
The U.S. is trying to convince more of its allies to increase export controls on advanced semiconductors and chip making equipment destined to China, but some haven’t committed, in part because they’re worried about possible trade retaliation from Beijing, said Alan Estevez, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is revising its regulations so that export controls don’t “impede or jeopardize” U.S. participation in international standards-setting bodies and other standards-related activities (see 2406180014), the agency said in an interim final rule released July 17.
Virtual currency wallet and exchange operator Payeer was fined nearly $9 million for violating international sanctions, Lithuania's Financial Crime Investigation Service announced. Payeer operated the cryptocurrency exchange "Payeer.com," which Russian customers were allowed to use to carry out transactions in Russian roubles. Funds were sent to and from sanctioned Russian banks, the Lithuanian authority said. Per EU law, the exchange was supposed to be conducting customer identification to ensure sanctioned parties were not using its services, close sanctioned parties' accounts and tell the investigation service of the suspension. The service was found to have violated EU sanctions for over 1.5 years.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on July 16 to resign after the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was found guilty in a federal corruption trial. It was not immediately clear whether Menendez would accept Schumer's recommendation. Menendez stepped down as chairman in September 2023 after he was indicted (see 2309280005). He remains a member of the committee, where he has been a vocal critic in recent years of a Trump-era rule that transferred the export control jurisdiction of certain weapons from the State Department to the Commerce Department (see 2110050029, 2109210058 and 2001170030), among other export control and sanctions issues.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week updated an entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List for Aviad Shlomo Sarid, a leader of the group Tzav 9, an Israeli extremist group that the U.S. sanctioned in June for blocking aid to Gaza (see 2407110018 and 2406170030). The update revises identifying information for Sarid.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation issued new guidance July 16 to clarify how its Russia-related sanctions apply to certain business services, including operating or managing a trust.