Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Companies have experienced a loss of business and other negative financial effects as a result of the Bureau of Industry and Security’s October 2022 and October 2023 rules restricting exports of advanced computing chips and chipmaking equipment (see 2310170055), the Government Accountability Office said in a new report released Dec. 2.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined Berlin-based Aiotec GmbH $14.55 million to settle allegations that it violated sanctions against Iran, OFAC said in a Dec. 3 enforcement notice. OFAC said the company, which sources industrial equipment for the energy sector, falsified documents and took other steps to hide that its purchase of an Australian industrial plant from a U.S. reseller would be moved to Iran.
The latest U.S. semiconductor-related export restrictions represent a strengthening of controls on China along with a “massive” expansion of foreign direct product rule restrictions, but they also include some head-scratching loopholes that chip firms will exploit, semiconductor policy researchers said this week.
Rachel Fredman Lyngaas is leaving her role as the Treasury Department’s chief sanctions economist to become a senior policy researcher at Rand, a think tank and research organization, she announced on LinkedIn. She announced her departure from Treasury last month (see 2411270005).
Stephanie Connor, former assistant chief counsel at the Office of Foreign Assets Control, is starting a new position as assistant director of OFAC's policy division, she announced on LinkedIn. Connor joined OFAC in 2022.
A dual U.S.-Russian citizen was arrested Dec. 2 for trying to export two small aircraft to Russia, said DOJ, which also seized the aircraft.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a senior member of the committee, urged the Biden administration Dec. 2 to impose sanctions in response to the Republic of Georgia’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in recent days.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a proponent of imposing more sanctions in response to Sudan’s civil war, said Nov. 29 that he plans to meet the week of Dec. 2 with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, to discuss several topics, including Sudan.
The Council of the European Union on Dec. 2 renewed its global human rights sanctions regime for another year, extending the restrictions until Dec. 8, 2025. The restrictions currently apply to 116 individuals and 33 entities.