Travelex Ltd., a currency-exchange company, was fined about $12,600 for violating the European Union’s Egypt financial sanctions regime, the United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a May 24 press release. The company “dealt with funds” of about $250 “belonging to a person designated” by the sanctions, the OFSI said in an enforcement notice.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 20-24 in case they were missed.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a “finding of violation” against U.S.-based State Street Bank and Trust Co. (SSBT) after it violated U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran, OFAC said in a May 28 notice. The bank was not fined, OFAC said, partly because the bank’s managers were likely unaware of the violations and because the bank cooperated with OFAC and improved its compliance program.
The Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit is proposing a new draft customs law that would streamline current requirements and take measures against corruption in the Mexican General Administration of Customs, according to a May 28 report in the Mexican newspaper El Economista.
The World Customs Organization issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
In the May 24 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of May 24 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Canada "is no longer accepting requests from the remission of surtaxes" now that the retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. are no longer in effect, the Department of Finance Canada said in an update to its page on the process for remission requests. Canada officially announced the end to the tariffs on May 20 (see 1905200054).
A Singapore man was sentenced to three weeks in prison for giving false information to Singapore Customs, according to a May 23 press release. The man, Ramesh Krishnasamy, helped operate an import business, Green Royal, which imported 800 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes and declared them as “176 pieces of empty plastic baskets,” Singapore Customs said. When Customs questioned Ramesh during the investigation, Ramesh gave a fake name to Customs for the man who Ramesh claimed “had suggested to him to start the business,” the press release said. Ramesh later told Customs he made up the name “to conceal the identity of the man,” an Indian national that was able to leave Singapore during the investigation. Singapore said it also arrested the Malaysian “lorry driver,” K Kumar Kannan, for knowingly transporting the cartons of cigarettes, which were concealed in a compartment in his vehicle. He was sentenced to prison for one year. Singapore Customs said giving false information can result in fines of up to $5,000 and/or one-year prison sentences.