The State Department should scale down the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ brokering reporting rules, which could reduce filing burdens for the defense industry and give the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls more accurate and timely information about ITAR brokering activity, industry officials said this week.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Dec. 5 that he will seek to enhance implementation of sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act when he becomes the panel’s chairman in January.
Jeremy Paner, a former sanctions investigator for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Hughes Hubbard as a partner in its sanctions, export controls and anti-money laundering practice, the firm announced. Paner worked at OFAC from 2007 to 2013 and was most recently with Squire Patton.
A Chinese national was arrested on Dec. 3 for allegedly conspiring to export firearms, ammunition and other military items to North Korea, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced. Shenghua Wen, an illegal resident of California, was charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a bill Dec. 3 to impose sanctions on Chinese police departments that operate in the U.S. or try to do so.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, introduced a bill Dec. 3 that would require sanctions against those who commit "genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity" in Sudan.
Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the Government Accountability Office Dec. 3 to report to Congress on whether U.S. restrictions on artificial intelligence exports are adequate to protect national security and human rights.
The House approved a bill by voice vote Dec. 3 that is designed to protect American companies that are sued in federal court for complying with U.S. sanctions and export controls.
The U.S. announced sanctions this week against five people and four companies connected to the TGR Group, a network of businesses and their employees that help Russian elites evade sanctions. The designations were the result of an international investigation by the U.S., the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates that the U.K.’s National Crime Agency said exposed Russian money laundering networks with touchpoints in Great Britain, the U.S., the Middle East and South America.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan this week called for a rethink of strategic technology controls and suggested that the incoming Trump administration look to build on the Biden administration's export control modernization efforts.