The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and its leader, Abdulqader Al-Murtadha, for operating prisons in Yemen on behalf of the Houthis, a group labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist organization (see 2401170025). OFAC also sanctioned Fawaz al-Akhras for providing “financial, material, or technological support for” Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who reportedly left the country after his regime was overthrown by rebels over the weekend. OFAC said the sanctions mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
The U.S. sanctioned 28 people and businesses connected to a global gold smuggling and money laundering network based in Zimbabwe, including Kamlesh Mansukhlal Damji Pattni, who leads the network and has bribed government officials, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said. OFAC said the sanctions mark International Anti-Corruption Day and were coordinated with the U.K. and the FBI.
The U.S. and Latvian governments last week gathered officials from the U.K., Canada, the EU and Ukraine to discuss export controls and sanctions in Latvia, including how those measures are affecting Russia, the Latvian government said in a news release.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Dec. 11 will add eight companies to the Entity List for “enabling human rights violations,” including by supplying sensitive technology or military items to foreign governments that are subject to strict license requirements. The entities are located in Myanmar, China and Russia, the agency said in a final rule released Dec. 10. They will be subject to license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and licenses will be reviewed under a presumption of denial.
The U.S. should continue working with allies to restrict sales of advanced semiconductors and semiconductor tools to China after the Biden administration leaves next month, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. But she also said she hopes the Trump administration prioritizes tools other than export controls and tariffs to counter China, and she warned against a potential decoupling of the two economies.
Daniel Munzert, a former enforcement official with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Citibank as its senior vice president of sanctions regulatory compliance, he announced last week on LinkedIn. Munzert joined OFAC in 2021 and left for Citibank in November.
Nearly half of U.S. companies surveyed by the Bureau of Industry and Security this year said they didn’t know whether their products contained any Chinese-made, mature-node semiconductors, BIS said in a summary of those survey results released Dec. 6.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, and eight other committee Republicans urged the Biden administration Dec. 5 to step up implementation and enforcement of sanctions on Iran’s oil sector to deprive Tehran of funding for terrorism and nuclear weapons development.
Western countries should impose additional sanctions on Belarus for supplying Russia’s war machine, helping Moscow evade sanctions and indoctrinating Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, three witnesses told the congressionally led U.S. Helsinki Commission Dec. 5.
The U.K. on Dec. 6 corrected a sanctions listing it made earlier in the week related to domestic counterterrorism efforts (see 2412030021). The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation listed Brian Sheridan under suspicions that he was providing financial assistance to members of the New Irish Republican Army. OFSI updated his listing to note that he has a U.K. passport.