A United Kingdom Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation notice, updated Sept. 3, details its annual frozen asset review and reporting form for 2020. All people or companies that hold or control funds belonging to sanctioned individuals must complete the and submit the form to OFSI by Oct. 16.
India revised its export policies for certain finished leather goods, the country’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade said Sept. 4. The revisions update export conditions for a range of leather products, including suede, nubuck, “goat and sheep based lining” leathers and laminated leathers. The notice details certain manufacturing norms and conditions for each product. The amendments were made “in the light of several changes that have taken place in the past 7-8 years in the tanning technology and new types of finished leather being produced now,” it said.
India is requiring all toy products, including imports, to be certified as safe by the Bureau of Indian Standards before they can be sold in the country, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said Sept. 8. The change, which took effect Sept. 1, also requires toy manufacturers and distributors to obtain a license from the Indian agency to prove their products comply with safety requirements. Toys must be classified in one of two categories before being licensed: nonelectric toys and electric toys.
China is launching a mission to set global regulations on data security as its companies increasingly face accusations of breaching foreign countries’ data privacy laws, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the International Seminar on Global Digital Governance Sept. 8 in Beijing, according to the text his speech. Wang, speaking weeks after the U.S. announced bans on transactions with the parent companies of WeChat and TikTok (see 2008070024), said Chinese companies have been forced to unfairly adapt to foreign data regulations.
The State Department approved potential military sales to France and Spain worth nearly $600 million combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Sept. 2. Under the proposed sales, France would get four AE-2100D Turbo Prop engines and two “Multifunctional, Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminal Block Upgrade Two” worth about $350 million. Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce, General Electric Aviation System, Raytheon and Viasat are the principal contractors. The sale to Spain includes 100 “IM-120C-7/8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles” and related equipment for $248.5 million. Raytheon Missiles and Defense is the prime contractor.
The U.S. seized two websites run by a U.S.-sanctioned foreign terrorist organization, the Justice Department said Sept. 2. The websites, Aletejahtv.com and Aletejahtv.org, belonged to Kata’ib Hizballah, “an Iran-backed terrorist group active in Iraq,” which the Office of Foreign Assets Control listed in 2009 as a Specially Designated National. The group used the websites to publish videos and articles designed to “further Kata’ib Hizballah’s agenda,” the Justice Department said. P. Lee Smith, a top official within the Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Export Enforcement, said the group was using U.S.-based online networks “to promote Iran backed terrorist propaganda.”
Four people, including a civilian employee of the Navy working as an engineer, were arrested for their involvement in a scheme to illegally download and sell export controlled technical drawings of U.S. military systems, the Department of Justice said Sept. 2. Navy engineer Mark Fitting of Berlin, New Jersey, allegedly worked with Lighthouse Point, Florida, resident Melony Erice to sell the drawings to Newport Beach, California-based Newport Aeronautical Sales Corp. (NASC), which later resold the documents to foreign customers, the agency said. Fitting and Erice allegedly sold at least 5,000 technical manuals and drawings to NASC, working with NASC employees George Posey and Dean Mirabal, both of Costa Mesa, California, who also were arrested.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S. company $55,000 for illegally exporting rifle scopes to Canada, a Sept. 3 order said. The company, New York-based Carl Zeiss SBE, LLC, shipped the scopes on 10 separate occasions despite knowing that the exports were subject to the Export Administration Regulations, BIS said. The company did not seek a license from BIS for the shipments, valued at nearly $890,000 combined. Carl Zeiss must pay the fine by Oct. 1 or risk having its export privileges revoked.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Sept. 8 sanctioned two former Lebanese government officials for corruption and supporting Hezbollah. The designations target former Lebanese minister of transportation and public works Yusuf Finyanus and former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil. OFAC also added identifying information for Reinaldo Enrique Munoz Pedroza, who was sanctioned Sept. 4 (see 2009040023).
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