The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned the Guatemala-based Los Pochos Drug Trafficking Organization, three of its members and four affiliated companies for their involvement in trafficking cocaine to the U.S.
The U.S. needs a more measured and analytics-driven approach to sanctions, export controls and other economic statecraft tools, said Daleep Singh, President Joe Biden’s incoming deputy national security adviser for international economics. He warned about the risks of relying too heavily on new, large-scale sanctions against China and called on the U.S. to create a formal doctrine to guide its use of trade restrictions.
The U.S. may need new industry advisory committees to help it implement and maintain its semiconductor export controls against China, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a recent report.
The State Department fined Boeing $51 million after the company allegedly violated a range of U.S. export controls, in the largest stand-alone civil fine by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls in years. The violations, which mostly occurred before 2020, included illegal exports to foreign employees and contractors working in more than 15 countries; a trade compliance specialist fabricating an export license to illegally ship defense items abroad; and violations of the terms and conditions of other export licenses. Boeing voluntarily disclosed the violations between 2017 and 2022.
Elizabeth Rosenberg left her role as a senior sanctions official at the Treasury Department to join Bank of America as managing director, global financial crimes public policy, she announced on LinkedIn this week. Rosenberg was most recently Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, where she helped oversee the Biden administration’s sanctions activities against Russia, including by coordinating them with U.S. allies (see 2310040059, 2304270069, 2303030018 and 2212080040).
The U.S. and U.K. this week announced coordinated designations against Iran and the Yemen-based Houthis for their roles in carrying out attacks on commercial cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Hong Kong-registered Kohana Company Limited and Marshall Islands-registered Iridescent Co Ltd. for operating a vessel shipping more than $100 million worth of Iranian commodities to China. The Panama-flagged Kohana is on its way to China, where it plans to offload the cargo to Chinese businesses, OFAC said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The European Commission recently issued updated guidance for a requirement that will soon force EU exporters to insert clauses in their contracts that bar reexports of certain sensitive goods to Russia. The document offers guidance on how EU companies should comply with the “no reexport to Russia” clause, how it impacts contracts already in place, how the EU plans to enforce the requirement, what the clause’s wording should include, and more.
Computing chips and other high-tech equipment made by American companies continue to flow to Russia’s war machine despite U.S. efforts to stop them with export controls and sanctions, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Feb. 27.