A United Kingdom Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation notice, updated Sept. 3, details its annual frozen asset review and reporting form for 2020. All people or companies that hold or control funds belonging to sanctioned individuals must complete the and submit the form to OFSI by Oct. 16.
The U.S. seized two websites run by a U.S.-sanctioned foreign terrorist organization, the Justice Department said Sept. 2. The websites, Aletejahtv.com and Aletejahtv.org, belonged to Kata’ib Hizballah, “an Iran-backed terrorist group active in Iraq,” which the Office of Foreign Assets Control listed in 2009 as a Specially Designated National. The group used the websites to publish videos and articles designed to “further Kata’ib Hizballah’s agenda,” the Justice Department said. P. Lee Smith, a top official within the Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Export Enforcement, said the group was using U.S.-based online networks “to promote Iran backed terrorist propaganda.”
Four people, including a civilian employee of the Navy working as an engineer, were arrested for their involvement in a scheme to illegally download and sell export controlled technical drawings of U.S. military systems, the Department of Justice said Sept. 2. Navy engineer Mark Fitting of Berlin, New Jersey, allegedly worked with Lighthouse Point, Florida, resident Melony Erice to sell the drawings to Newport Beach, California-based Newport Aeronautical Sales Corp. (NASC), which later resold the documents to foreign customers, the agency said. Fitting and Erice allegedly sold at least 5,000 technical manuals and drawings to NASC, working with NASC employees George Posey and Dean Mirabal, both of Costa Mesa, California, who also were arrested.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S. company $55,000 for illegally exporting rifle scopes to Canada, a Sept. 3 order said. The company, New York-based Carl Zeiss SBE, LLC, shipped the scopes on 10 separate occasions despite knowing that the exports were subject to the Export Administration Regulations, BIS said. The company did not seek a license from BIS for the shipments, valued at nearly $890,000 combined. Carl Zeiss must pay the fine by Oct. 1 or risk having its export privileges revoked.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Sept. 8 sanctioned two former Lebanese government officials for corruption and supporting Hezbollah. The designations target former Lebanese minister of transportation and public works Yusuf Finyanus and former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil. OFAC also added identifying information for Reinaldo Enrique Munoz Pedroza, who was sanctioned Sept. 4 (see 2009040023).
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The Trump administration is considering placing export controls on China’s top chipmaker, the latest move in a campaign of restrictions aimed at Chinese technology companies. The controls would target the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation by placing it on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, Reuters said in a Sept. 4 report. The effort is being spearheaded by the Defense Department, the report said, which petitioned Commerce’s End User Committee last week to add SMIC to the Entity List.
Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin should sanction Russians involved in ongoing interference in the 2020 U.S. elections, a group of Democratic senators said in a Sept. 3 letter. They pointed to the public release of information by the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center that describes activities of “Kremlin-linked actors” attempting to sway opinion about President Donald Trump's Democratic opponent in the presidential race, Joe Biden. “We thus urge you to draw upon the conclusions of the Intelligence Community to identify and target for sanctions all those determined to be responsible for ongoing election interference, including any actors within the government of the Russian Federation, any Russian actors determined to be directly responsible, and those acting on their behalf or providing material or financial support for their efforts,” they said. The group, led by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, also provided Mnuchin “additional classified information through separate channels,” according to a news release.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control identified and sanctioned four people who “have facilitated the illegitimate Maduro regime’s efforts to undermine the independence and democratic order of Venezuela,” the Department of the Treasury said in a Sept. 4 news release. “These individuals include David Eugenio De Lima Salas, Reinaldo Enrique Munoz Pedroza, Indira Maira Alfonzo Izaguirre, and Jose Luis Gutierrez Parra,” OFAC said. “Their actions are part of a broader election interference scheme to prevent free and fair parliamentary elections from taking place in December 2020 by restructuring the National Electoral Council and controlling the state’s wealth and assets for regime purposes through the Solicitor General,” OFAC said in the release.
The Bureau of Industry and Security ought to make available information that is more specific to university export compliance, the Association of University Export Control Officers said in a recent letter to BIS. The letter was prompted by a May Government Accountability Office report that similarly said more guidance for universities would be helpful (see 2005120053). “While it is possible for universities to glean some needed information from outreach materials and training geared toward industry, it can be difficult at times to interpret industry-focused guidance to the university environment,” the association said.