The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned four Iranian entities and an Iranian aviation industry executive for their ties to the country’s unmanned aerial vehicle program, which has made drones for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
OFAC sanction activity
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two companies in the Central African Republic linked to the Wagner Group, the designated private Russian military organization. The sanctions target Mining Industries SARLU and Logistique Economique Etrangere SARLU for “enabling Wagner Group security operations and Wagner Group-linked illicit mining endeavors” in the CAR, OFAC said.
Congress, federal agencies and state bar associations should work together on new regulations to ensure U.S. lawyers aren't enabling Russia-related sanctions evasion, Stanford Law School lecturer Erik Jensen and a host of law students recommended in a recent report.
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 Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three Chinese nationals for their ties to a “residential proxy botnet” called 911 S5 that allows hackers to hide their locations and evade fraud detection systems. The designations target Yunhe Wang, Jingping Liu and Yanni Zheng along with Spicy Code Company Limited, a company used by Wang to buy real estate, and Tulip Biz Pattaya Group Company Limited and Lily Suites Company Limited, other companies owned by Wang.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control revised its Cuba sanctions this week to loosen restrictions on a range of activities and transactions, including for certain financial and internet services. Some changes will allow certain Cuban nationals to open and remotely use U.S. bank accounts and will authorize certain Cuba-related remittances and payments that were restricted by the Trump administration.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted two aircraft from its Specially Designated Nationals List that were originally added for their ties to designated Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Pouya Air. One removed plane has aircraft registration number EP-MND (linked to Mahan air), the other is EP-GOM (linked to Pouya Air). The agency didn't release more information.
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.
A Virginia-based technology company said it received warning letters from both the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control after disclosing possible Russia-related sanctions violations to both agencies last year.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a technical notice to users of its new Sanctions List Service (see 2405060043) of a possible error involving old URLs of the agency’s sanctions data files. OFAC said it has received reports that “users with automated processes designed to download sanctions data files at” certain old URLs are receiving "403 errors" when trying to access the SLS hosted files.