Congress may want to consider modifying U.S. export control regulations given the changing assumptions about the pace of technological development and the obstacles that presents for government agencies, the Congressional Research Service said in a report this month. The 40-page report suggests the U.S. may seek to review the Export Control Reform Act, which was drafted with “embedded assumptions about the pace of technological development” that may no longer be true, the report said.
Suspicious activity reports recently filed with the U.S. government show nearly $1 billion worth of transactions over the last year may have had ties to Russia-related export control evasion, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a new report analyzing SAR trend data. The report -- issued as part of a joint effort between FinCen and the Bureau of Industry and Security to collect more leads for export enforcement agents -- highlights several evasion trends being reported by banks and other financial institutions, including what types of goods are most commonly being sought by sanctions evaders and which foreign countries those transactions most frequently involve.
Andrew Adams, former acting deputy assistant attorney general for DOJ's National Security Division, has joined Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in the Investigations and White-Collar Defense Practice in New York, the firm announced. Adams worked as the first director of Task Force KleptoCapture -- the interagency group tasked with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia in wake of the invasion of Ukraine. At DOJ, he also oversaw efforts pertaining to economic sanctions, export controls and cyber offenses tied to nation-state actors, the firm said.
The European Commission released a general guidance document on implementing due diligence practices to halt the circumvention of the sanctions on Russia. The guidance includes risk assessment of possible sanctions circumvention, due diligence best practices, circumvention red flags related to business partners and buyers, and EU sanctions whistleblower tools. The due diligence best practices section addresses the stakeholder and transaction levels and the level of the goods themselves.
The EU General Court this week upheld one application for delisting under the Russia sanctions regime and rejected six others. The court removed former Ozon CEO Aleksandr Shulgin from the sanctions list, saying his relisting was not justified. The court said that given Shulgin had resigned his post and the European Council had not looked in why listing was still proper, he was not properly sanctioned, according to an unofficial translation.
The EU added six individuals to its Global Sanctions Regime for their role in perpetuating "serious human rights violations" in Russia and Ukraine, the European Council announced. The individuals include prosecutors and judges in Russia-occupied Crimea who participated in the "politically motivated court proceedings" against journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko. The council also sanctioned two members of the Russian Federal Security Service who either tortured Yesypenko or investigated him.
The U.S. Census Bureau clarified who the ultimate consignee would be for certain scenarios, in a blog post on Sept. 7. The blog post includes a few scenarios wherein the Foreign Principal Party in Interest (FPPI) or foreign buyer is listed as the ultimate consignee, and two of those wherein "reseller/distributor" is listed as the Ultimate Consignee Type if they are reselling or distributing the goods.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said despite the fact that Russia has managed to use ships and insurance companies from countries that didn't agree to a price cap on Russian oil sales, the sanction is working.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control published a previously issued general license under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of the license is available in the notice.
The Supply Chain Agreement, one of the pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, will ask participating countries to work together to: