Geopolitics, including sanctions and export controls, is increasingly becoming an agenda item for the corporate boardroom, according to professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. They said more companies need to build “a geopolitical calculus” into their business strategy, secure and diversify their supply chains to hedge against new trade restrictions, and guard against “adversarial capital,” such as investors “aligned with adversarial states.” Governments are “increasingly focused on protecting startups from such threats -- which underscores the importance of working with trusted partners and funds that understand the security implications of frontier technologies.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce told lawmakers Oct 21 that it supports bipartisan legislation to repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, a 2019 law that was aimed at the then-Bashar Assad regime.
Four Senate Democrats criticized the Trump administration Oct. 23 for ignoring their earlier call to sanction Chinese individuals and entities that buy liquefied natural gas from the U.S.-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia.
A new U.K. general license authorizes certain payments from sanctioned Iranian entities to "UK Employees and UK Directors" for six months. The license runs from Oct. 23 through April 22 and covers Bank Melli, Bank Saderat Iran, Bank Tejarat, Persia International Bank and Iran Insurance Co. These parties can make payments for "remuneration, allowances and contractual or statutory redundancy payments to" their U.K. employees and directors; pensions of U.K. employees and directors; fees and other costs related to services provided by IT companies; and fees and costs related to accountancy services for the banks' U.K. operations.
The U.K. added new FAQs 170 and 171 to address its most recent general license covering sanctions-related legal services (see 2510230018). The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said the sanctions license "resets the fees and expense caps," which sit at just over $2.66 million, for covered legal services ranging from Oct. 29, 2025, until the license expires on April 28, 2026. OFSI also amended the license to cover "most UK autonomous sanctions regimes." In addition, it allows permitted payments to be made from abroad into U.K. or certain non-U.K. bank accounts, the agency said.
The Treasury Department said Oct. 23 that it found about $9 billion in U.S.-related banking activity in 2024 that had possible ties to Iran's "shadow banking," which helps Iran-based exchange houses and foreign firms evade U.S. sanctions, sell oil and other commodities abroad, launder money and fund its military.
President Donald Trump last week pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, a virtual currency exchange that was fined billions of dollars in November 2023 for allegedly violating multiple U.S. sanctions programs and breaching anti-money-laundering laws (see 2311210076). At the time, Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Oct. 23 that Trump was "exercising his constitutional authority" to pardon Zhao, calling it an "overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, president of Colombia, for actions that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said have allowed drug cartels and traffickers to "flourish." OFAC also sanctioned Gustavo Petro’s eldest son, Nicolas Fernando Petro Burgos, who is considered to be his political heir; First Lady Veronica del Socorro Alcocer Garcia; and Armando Alberto Benedetti Villaneda, who has been appointed by Petro to multiple high-ranking positions within the Colombian government.
Most respondents to an Aerospace Industry Association survey on the AUKUS defense trade exemption said they view the change positively, although they believe the scope of the exemption may need to be expanded and the State Department’s Excluded Technology List should be revised. They also said the U.S., Australia and the U.K. should publish clearer guidance on the authorized user enrollment process to address “inconsistencies across the three jurisdictions.”
Chinese companies are likely to end up buying Nvidia chips despite reports that Beijing has ordered its top firms to cease those purchases, said Jake Sullivan, former national security adviser to President Joe Biden.