A former employee of Tokyo Electron, a leading semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, was involved in the recent theft of trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Tokyo Electron said Aug. 7.
The State Department this week approved a possible $404 million military sale to Australia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said. The sale includes equipment and services to support the maintenance of its MC-55A aircraft fleet. The principal contractor will be L3 Harris.
An active-duty service member of the U.S. Army was charged with trying to send national defense information to a foreign adversary and trying to export controlled technical data, DOJ announced Aug. 6. Taylor Lee, stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, allegedly tried to send information on the M1A2 Abrams tank, an "armored fighting vehicle used by the U.S. military" and combat operations to the Russian military.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said Aug. 7 that she plans to “redouble” her efforts to enact a bill to sanction officials who undermine democracy in the Republic of Georgia.
The U.N. Security Council on Aug. 5 added an alias to the sanctions entry for Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and others for his ties to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The alias is Bashar al-Nasiri.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 18 entities and people for helping the Iranian government evade sanctions, including financial companies, information technology firms and other businesses providing Iran with banking services or supplying it with advanced surveillance technologies.
The head of a tech policy nonprofit urged the leaders of three congressional committees Aug. 7 to hold a hearing to examine the “large-scale smuggling” of advanced American AI chips into China in violation of U.S. export controls.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. last year nearly doubled its site visits and opened multiple investigations on possible filing violations stemming from voluntary disclosures, CFIUS said in its annual report released this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has named Robby Saunders, a former senior adviser with both BIS and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the agency's new deputy assistant secretary for technology security. Saunders was the former vice president of national security at the Coalition for Prosperous America before joining Scott's staff in 2023 and BIS in March, according to her LinkedIn. She replaces longtime senior BIS official Eric Longnecker (see 2505050005),
The European Commission on Aug. 6 imposed antidumping duties on decor paper from China. The duties range from 26.4% to 26.9% and are being imposed after an investigation showed decor paper from China injures the EU industry. Decor paper is "used as a coating in the production of furniture and more broadly in the interior design, construction and renovation industries," the commission said.