Canada this week announced another round of sanctions against members of the Haitian economic elite for contributing to violence and corruption in the country. The designations target businessmen Marc Antoine Acra, Carl Braun and Jean Marie Vorbe. “We continue to call on the international community to join Canada in putting pressure on those who directly contribute to the ongoing violence and instability in Haiti,” said Melanie Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister. Canada has previously sanctioned people in Haiti who it said have enabled the activity of armed criminal gangs (see 2301130019, 2212200016, 2212060008, 2211210026 and 2211040064).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control reached a $31,867.90 settlement with New York-based Emigrant Bank this week after it allegedly violated U.S. sanctions on Iran by maintaining an account for two Iranian residents. OFAC said the bank maintained a certificate of deposit (CD) account for the two people for about 26 years, and processed 30 transactions between June 2017 and March 2021 worth about $91,000.
Global manufacturing firm 3M reached a $9.6 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control this week after it allegedly violated U.S. sanctions on Iran. OFAC said the company’s Swiss subsidiary knowingly sold reflective license plate sheeting through a German reseller to Bonyad Taavon Naja, an entity controlled by Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces.
The House Financial Services Committee advanced legislation this week that could apply full blocking sanctions on a host of Chinese companies in what Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., described as the “most severe set of financial restrictions the House of Representatives has ever considered.” Barr’s bill, the Chinese Military and Surveillance Company Sanctions Act (see 2302060005 and 2306130062), could lead to new financial sanctions on companies subject to certain U.S. investment restrictions and export control licensing requirements, including China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., Huawei and other major Chinese technology companies.
Christopher Stagg, a former export control official with the State Department, announced this week he has left Miller & Chevalier to launch Stagg PLLC, his own export control practice. His firm will provide a “first-of-its-kind dedicated issues and appeals practice for high-stakes export control situations, such as appeals and other disputes with the export control agencies, regulatory interpretations, delisting petitions, and rulemaking changes,” Stagg said on LinkedIn.
Ukraine filed dispute cases at the World Trade Organization against Hungary, Poland and Slovakia concerning their bans on Ukraine's agricultural exports, the country's Ministry of Economy announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the three nations' "unilateral ban" violates the countries' international obligations.
The U.K. on Sept. 19 amended one entry under its Russia sanctions list and corrected three others to "remove reference to transport sanctions." The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the listing for Mikhail Fridman to show that he is sanctioned, given that he worked as a director of Alfa Group, which operates in the Russian financial services sector. The corrections were issued for Zarakh Iliev, owner of transport company Kievskaya Ploshchad; Igor Makarov, director of Reywood Holdings; and Iskander Makhmudov, president of Ural Mining and Metallurgical Co.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov this week to discuss expanding trade between the two countries, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Sept. 19, according to an unofficial translation.
The top Republican on the House Select Committee on China asked the Biden administration to determine whether 13 Chinese government officials should be subject to sanctions and 25 entities should be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List for their ties to human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
DOJ is seeking to expand an authority that allows it to use seized Russian assets to assist with Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts. Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking before the House Judiciary Committee Sept. 20, said in written remarks prepared for the hearing that DOJ can use the authority, included as part of the FY 2023 government spending package, to transfer certain forfeited property to the State Department “to remediate the harms of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” But the administration can’t use that authority for forfeited Russian assets connected to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea or related to assets forfeited for violations of certain export controls.