Jennifer Kennedy Gellie, former chief of DOJ's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in the National Security Division, has joined Pillsbury's international trade group. Gellie left DOJ in January after nearly a decade with the agency, where she worked on cases involving export controls, sanctions, corporate crime and other similar issues. Pillsbury said she will help clients "navigate enforcement and compliance for sanctions, export-control, Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and trade matters."
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation reminded industry this week that the new, lower price cap for Russian oil took effect Sept. 2 (see 2507180017). The new $47.60 cap is down from the previous $60 cap announced about two years ago (see 2212050014). The U.K. added that there is a 45-day wind-down period, ending Oct. 17, for existing contracts to comply with the new cap.
The State Department recently approved possible military sales to Ukraine and Denmark, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.
Reps. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., introduced a bill Sept. 2 that would authorize the president to impose property-blocking sanctions on Tunisian officials responsible for the country’s recent democratic backsliding and increased human rights abuses.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sept. 3 that the U.S. should immediately enforce sanctions on Serbia’s majority-Russian-owned oil company, NIS, to punish Belgrade for its "subservience" to Moscow.
The Senate might consider legislation to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China during its deliberations on the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this month, a key lawmaker said Sept. 3.
The House approved several export control and sanctions bills late Sept. 2, including two aimed at China.
A State Department spokesperson declined to say whether the agency has rescinded the visas of family members of International Criminal Court officials sanctioned by the U.S., as alleged by ICC judge Kimberly Prost (see 2509020041). "Due to visa record confidentiality, we have no comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases," the spokesperson said Sept. 2 in an email. Prost, an ICC judge sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control last month, said this week that some of her sanctioned ICC colleagues have children in the U.S. on temporary visas, and those visas "have been revoked.”
The U.K. on Sept. 3 revoked a sanctions license that previously permitted the continuation of business of Evraz's North American subsidiaries. The license let individuals and corporations continue business operations involving Evraz North America, Evraz Inc. NA and Evraz Inc. NA – Canada and their subsidiary companies.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed sanctions on Belarusian national Iryna Litviniuk, which were imposed in 2022 for "exploiting" the Guatemalan mining sector, and Musbah Mohamad M Wadi, who was sanctioned in 2020 for his ties to a network of smugglers "contributing to instability" in Libya. OFAC had originally added Litviniuk to the Specially Designated Nationals List under its Global Magnitsky sanctions regulations, and it added Wadi under its Libya sanctions. The agency didn't provide more information about the delistings.