Zhenyu Wang and Daniel Lane, both Texas residents, were convicted on Nov. 15 of attempting to skirt U.S. sanctions on Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, DOJ announced. DOJ said they both tried to "transact in sanctioned Iranian petroleum and launder the proceeds" and were convicted of attempting to violate IEEPA, conspiracy to violate IEEPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published four previously issued general licenses under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of each license is available in the notice.
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently made available its process by which companies may begin submitting notifications for certain exports of “gray-zone” semiconductors that fall just below the new chip control parameters announced last month (see 2310170055). As part of the updated restrictions, BIS is requiring a notification under new License Exception Notified Advanced Computing (NAC), which will authorize certain exports of certain chips to China, Macau and destinations subject to a U.S. arms embargo.
More than a month after a British appellate court suggested the U.K. government could treat every Russian public and private entity as a sanctioned party because they can potentially be controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a U.K. sanctions agency said it doesn’t plan to enforce its sanctions in that manner. The court ruling had caused widespread concern among the U.K. legal and business community, but the U.K.’s latest guidance means that uncertainty “is effectively resolved,” said law firm Osborne Clarke.
The EU’s next sanctions package against Russia could lead to new designations of more than 120 more people and entities, new import and export bans, a proposal to strengthen the price cap on Russian oil and more, the European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a notice last week. The package could also extend EU import bans for certain aluminum products, including wires, tubes, pipes and aluminum foil, the European Aluminum trade group said.
In its largest-ever civil sanctions penalty, the Treasury Department on Nov. 21 announced a $968 mllion settlement with Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, for allegedly violating multiple U.S. sanctions programs. Treasury said Binance senior management tried to “project an image of compliance” but in reality allowed people that were either subject to sanctions or located in sanctioned jurisdictions to use its platform, and management also took steps to “undermine” the company’s own compliance procedures. Binance didn’t voluntarily disclose the violations, Treasury said, calling the case “egregious.”
An academic and journalists from England and Foreign Policy magazine agreed that President Joe Biden got more out of the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping than Xi did.
President Joe Biden renewed a national emergency authorizing certain sanctions related to Nicaragua, the White House said last week. The situation in Nicaragua, including the "systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions" as well as "indiscriminate violence" and corruption, continues to threaten U.S. national security, Biden said. The emergency for Nicaragua was renewed for one year from Nov. 27.
The U.S. this week sanctioned seven people and one entity affiliated with Iranian-aligned militia groups. The designations, announced by the Treasury and State departments, target several people connected to Iraq-based Kata’ib Hizballah and newly sanctioned Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, two militia groups that receive funding and support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. Designated were Imad Naji al-Bahadli, Habib Hasan Mughamis Darraji, Ja’afar al-Husayni, Khalid Kadhim Jasim al-Skeni, Basim Mohammad Hasab al-Majidi, Mojtaba Jahandust and Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji.
The American and British agencies in charge of sanctions implementation have “worked more closely than ever” during the last year and are planning to share more data, issue additional guidance and better harmonize their sanctions measures, they said last week. They also announced a plan to embed an official within the other country’s agency to help train and learn about each side's respective sanctions procedures.