The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned the Lex Instituto de Estudos Juridicos LTDA, a holding company for Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who was sanctioned earlier this year for ordering "arbitrary" pretrial detentions and suppressing freedom of expression (see 2507300031). OFAC said Moraes used the company for ownership of his residence and other residential properties. The agency also sanctioned Moraes' wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, who served as the head of the company. They were both designated under Global Magnitsky-related human rights authorities.
ShapeShift, a defunct Swiss cryptocurrency exchange that operated out of Colorado, will pay $750,000 to the Office of Foreign Assets Control to resolve allegations that it violated sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. OFAC said the exchange had no sanctions compliance program and illegally allowed users in those countries to use its platform for digital asset transactions.
Chinese semiconductor company Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp. accused the Bureau of Industry and Security of illegally withholding documents related to its placement on the Entity List, adding that the government acted on "inaccurate" information from YMTC competitors when it imposed stringent export license requirements on the company in 2022. The firm also questioned whether the End-User Review Committee, the interagency group that makes decisions on adding or removing companies from the Entity List, followed proper protocol when it voted to put YMTC on the list.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published a new license last week that authorizes certain transactions related to news media services. The license allows the provision of "goods or services" that "are necessary for the provision of News Media Services," along with activities that are "reasonably necessary to effect the receipt or provision of News Media Services, including making or receiving Permitted Payments." The license also authorizes U.K. financial institutions to process those payments.
The U.S. and the U.K. last week signed the Technology Prosperity Deal, which the White House said will boost cooperation on AI, nuclear energy and quantum computing while supporting U.S. national security. A fact sheet said the deal will promote U.S. and U.K. AI exports to "offer the full stack of chips, data centers, and models" and will launch a U.S.-U.K. Quantum Industry Exchange Program to align trade and technology policy. They will also look to increase civil nuclear exports in third countries.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls last week released its notifications to Congress of recently proposed export licenses. The notifications, which cover licenses submitted from April through June, include exports to Germany, Ukraine, Italy, the Netherlands, the U.K., Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Australia and elsewhere.
Eight Senate Democrats led by Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Trump administration Sept. 19 to sanction individuals and entities that have made China the first country to buy liquefied natural gas from the U.S.-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia.
A bipartisan group of nine senators introduced a bill Sept. 18 that would expand U.S. sanctions authorities against the “shadow fleet” of tankers Russia has deployed to circumvent the international price cap on its oil and generate funds for its military.
Three congressional Democrats asked the Treasury Department Sept. 18 to provide more information about its recent decision to delay and possibly revise a new anti-money-laundering rule for investment advisers (see 2507240021).
The U.K. last week sanctioned two people based in Georgia, along with companies in Russia and England, for supporting Russia or doing business with the country.