An Iranian citizen pleaded guilty to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Iran sanctions after she tried to illegally export gas turbine parts from the U.S. to Iran, the Department of Justice said in a July 19 press release. Mahin Mojtahedzadeh faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine when sentenced in November.

A Senate bill would authorize sanctions on foreign persons, including government officials, responsible for illegally trading tobacco products. The bill, introduced June 25 and titled the “Combating the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products Act,” would freeze assets and block funds of sanctioned people under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The bill would also impose travel bans. The bill states that the "illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors is a multibillion dollar business that fuels organized crime, fosters public corruption, undermines public health goals, and finances terrorist groups that threaten global security and stability."

The European Union Council removed one person from its North Korea sanctions regime and updated the alias for an entity in the same regime, the council said in a July 17 notice. The council removed sanctions from RI Pyong Chol and updated an alias for the Maritime Administrative Bureau, which “assisted in the evasion of” United Nations Security Council sanctions, “including by renaming and re-registering assets of designated entities and providing false documentation to vessels subject to” UN sanctions, the notice said.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four officials of Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence accused of human rights abuses, Treasury said in a July 19 press release. The sanctioned officials are: Division General Rafael Ramón Blanco Marrero, Colonel Hannover Esteban Guerrero Mijares, Major Alexander Enrique Granko Arteaga and Colonel Rafael Antonio Franco Quintero. The sanctions follow alleged human rights abuses involved in the arrest, torture and death of Venezuelan Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, Treasury said. OFAC used Acosta’s death as justification for sanctioning the Venezuelan military agency on July 11 (see 1907110040).

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a senior member of Hizballah’s External Security Organization (ESO), which planned terrorist attacks near Lebanon, Treasury said in a July 19 press release. Salman Raouf Salman was added to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List, the agency said. Hizballah’s ESO, the group’s “elite unit” run by U.S.-sanctioned Talal Hamiyah, carries out Hizballah’s international missions, the press release said. Salman is responsible for the group’s foreign operations in Lebanon and terrorism-related activities elsewhere, including in Buenos Aires, Panama, Colombia and Brazil, Treasury said.

The Commerce Department’s presumption of denial for Huawei-related export licenses may no longer apply, Akin Gump lawyers said during a July 18 webinar.

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

Britain will not grant new licenses for exports to Saudi Arabia and its “coalition partners” for items that may be used in the “conflict in Yemen,” the United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade said in a July 17 notice. The coalition of partners includes the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt, the U.K. said.

Britain's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated identifying information for a financial sanctions entry related to South Sudan, the office said in a July 18 notice. The entry, Paul Malong AWAN, is still subject to an asset freeze, the notice said.

Singapore Customs said a man was sentenced to 42 months in prison and penalized with a more than $10 million fine for “dealing with duty-unpaid cigarettes,” in a July 17 press release. Because the man did not pay the fine, Singapore said an extra 28 months was added to his sentence. Singapore Customs said the man and five others were arrested for evading about $350,000 in duties on cigarettes in 2017. The man coordinated the delivery of the cigarettes, which were loaded onto two Malaysian-registered cars “for distribution to various locations in Singapore,” according to the notice. The man is a repeat offender, previously convicted of similar offenses in 2006, and also in 2014, for being caught in 2012 and 2013 importing or delivering duty-unpaid cigarettes.