The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a 180-day temporary denial order this week against three people and two companies for illegally sending controlled exports to Russia as part of a Moscow-led sanctions evasion scheme. Along with the denial order, DOJ indicted the three people, along with others, on charges related to the illegal exports, including money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiring to defraud the U.S.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed the temporary denial order (TDO) for three U.S. companies for their involvement in illegally exported technical drawings and blueprints to China (see 2206080068). The order, issued in June, was renewed for another 180 days, BIS said Dec. 5, partly because the agency found possible evidence of additional export violations.
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently revoked export privileges for seven people after they illegally exported or tried to export controlled items from the U.S., including to Mexico and Russia.
As U.S. chip and technology companies continue to grapple with the U.S’s latest export restrictions on China (see 2211010042), a number of firms fear the controls will hurt their sales and exacerbate uncertainty in the semiconductor sector and the industry’s supply chains. In filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission this month, at least one firm projected revenue losses while others said they are still assessing the impact of the complex controls and whether they can secure export licenses.
A United Arab Emirates company violated U.S. export controls by shipping or trying to ship more than $50,000 worth of U.S.-origin telecommunications items to Syria and Iran, the Bureau of Industry and Security said in a charging letter released last week. The company, WEBS Electronics Trading Company, and its owner, Mohammad Alhamra, also lied to a BIS agent when it said it didn’t export to Syria.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee is asking the Commerce Department to provide its licensing data and communications with chip companies, along with a broad swathe of related information, to make sure the agency is implementing its new China controls “fairly across all market players.”
Nearly a month after the U.S. announced new export controls on advanced computing and semiconductor equipment destined to China, lawyers and companies are still grappling with what they say is a complex set of regulations and are awaiting clearer government guidance on how and whether their activities are covered. The dense regulations, along with lengthy response times from the Bureau of Industry and Security, have caused firms to delay decisions on shipments until they can better understand their risks and BIS’s due diligence requirements, trade attorneys and industry officials said in recent interviews.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 19 completed interagency review for a final rule that would implement certain export control decisions made during the 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement cycle. The rule, sent for review Aug. 4 (see 2208080021), will revise the Commerce Control List and corresponding parts of the Export Administration Regulations, including License Exception Adjusted Peak Performance, BIS said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security received more than 150 questions ahead of its Oct. 13 public briefing on its new China-related export controls (see 2210070049) and plans to issue guidance for the restrictions on a rolling basis, senior BIS official Thea Kendler said during the briefing. She said guidance will include frequently asked questions that the agency will look to continually update on a “rolling” basis. “Let me assure you that we understand the need for speed in issuing FAQs,” Kendler said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week announced a broad set of new export controls it said will restrict China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors. The controls, outlined in an interim final rule that will take effect in phases, will impose new restrictions on a range of advanced computing semiconductor chips and semiconductor manufacturing items, impose controls on transactions for supercomputer end-uses and certain integrated circuit end-uses, and introduce new restrictions on transactions involving certain entities on the Entity List.