A California electronics company was fined $6.6 million by the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls after it illegally exported technical data and software to more than 15 countries, including China, DDTC said Aug. 9. DDTC said Keysight Technologies, which makes electronic test and measurement equipment and software, committed 24 violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including unauthorized exports while the companies still had an outstanding commodity jurisdiction request pending with the State Department.
The European Council announced that certain third countries aligned themselves on Aug. 6 with the council's decision to extend the EU terrorist list for a further six months. Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Liechtenstein will also extend the list that established restrictive measures against 14 individuals and 21 entities (see 2107200023). The sanctions, reviewed at least every six months, are now set to expire in January 2022. The terrorist list is separate from the EU's al-Qaida and ISIL sanctions regime.
A group of House Republicans called on the Commerce Department to add Chinese smartphone maker Honor Device Co. Ltd. to the Entity List and asked for a briefing with the agency’s End-User Review Committee to ensure the administration is “moving with enough speed” on export controls. Because Huawei sold Honor Device Co., the company can access technology that “should be restricted,” the lawmakers said in an Aug. 6 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 6 added five people to its Specially Designated Nationals List for counter-terrorism reasons. The people are: Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, Salem ould Breihmatt, Sidan Ag Hitta, Bonomade Machude Omar and Ali Mohamed Rage. The people have connections to Somalia, Mozambique, Mauritania and Mali. OFAC didn’t immediately provide more information on the designations.
President Joe Biden extended for one year a national emergency that authorizes certain U.S. export control authorities, the White House said Aug. 6. The authorization allows the U.S. to continue to carry out provisions in the Export Control Reform Act, along with other regulations. The emergency would have ended Aug. 17.
The United Kingdom's Economic Secretary to the Treasury upheld an Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation penalty on TransferGo Limited for violating the U.K.'s sanctions in response to the annexation of Crimea by Russia. TransferGo, a money transfer company, was penalized for allowing payments to accounts at the sanctioned Russian National Commercial Bank between March 2018 and December 2019. The penalty of over $69,000 was sustained following a June review of the Policing and Crime Act 2017.
Australia plans to revise its sanctions laws to allow increased punishments for weapons proliferation, human rights violations, malicious cyber activity and corruption, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said Aug. 5. The sanctions will “expand upon Australia’s current country-based autonomous sanctions framework,” Payne said, adding that Australia plans to introduce amendments to the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 to “achieve these important reforms” by the end of the year. “Once the types of conduct are established, Australia will have the ability to impose targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against individuals and entities determined to be involved in such sanctionable conduct wherever it occurs, without having to establish specific country-based regimes,” Payne said.
The U.S. needs to expand export and investment restrictions to prevent China from acquiring advanced semiconductor equipment and other sensitive technologies, former national security officials told Congress this week. One official specifically said the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security should impose export controls more actively. Another said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. needs more resources.
Gregg Sofer, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, joined Husch Blackwell in its White Collar, Internal Investigations and Compliance practice group, the firm announced Aug. 2. Sofer has a background in national security law, including experience in export controls, sanctions, trade secrets and regulatory compliance, the release said.
Himamauli Das, a former Treasury Department and National Security Council official, will serve as the new acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the agency announced Aug. 3. Das will take over from acting director Michael Mosier, who plans to leave the agency at the end of the week. Treasury also said it officially began its search for a permanent FinCEN director.