The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published previously issued Syrian Sanctions Regulations General License 22. The notice includes the full text of the license.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. needs to create a formal doctrine to outline guardrails for deploying sanctions, export controls and other economic statecraft tools, said Daleep Singh, President Joe Biden’s former deputy national security adviser, speaking during an April 25 Atlantic Council event. He also said the U.S. needs to conduct an assessment of its past use of those trade and financial measures to determine when they worked best and make sure they aren’t being overused.
A British cigarette manufacturer agreed to pay American authorities more than $635 million to settle alleged sanctions violations after the U.S. said the company illegally sent tobacco and tobacco products to North Korea. British American Tobacco will pay about $508 million to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the agency's largest fine in more than four years, and pay an additional fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ.
The EU Court of Justice tossed an appeal from the European Council seeking to reverse a General Court ruling that annulled sanctions on Aisha Muammer Mohamed El-Gadhafi, the daughter of Moammar Gadhafi, under the Libya sanctions regime. The court ruled that the council did not sufficiently support its claim that annulling the sanctions decisions would cause serious and irreversible harm to the effectiveness of the sanctions. Merely alleging that El-Gadhafi might move to prevent fund-freezing measures from being applied was not enough, the court said.
The U.K. added four entries to its Iran (Human Rights) sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The four people are Mohammad Nazar Azimi, Ahmad Kadem, Mohsen Karimi and Habib Shahsavari, all officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The European Parliament last week approved legislation that could allow the EU to better trace certain transfers of crypto-assets and block “suspicious transactions.” The legislation, which must be endorsed by the European Council before becoming law, “will make it more difficult for criminals, terrorists and sanctions evaders to misuse crypto assets,” Parliament member Assita Kanko, of Belgium, said.
The EU made new sanctions listings under three regimes, the European Council announced. Under the anti-terrorism list, the council added two individuals and one group linked to ISIL operating in the Cabo Delgado region in Mozambique. The group is ISIS-Mozambique and the two individuals are Abu Yasir Hassan and Bonomade Mahcude Omar, who hold leadership positions in the group.
Two non-governmental organizations and a trade group filed the first complaint under Germany’s new supply chain law this week, saying Amazon, Ikea and Tom Tailor aren’t meeting certain human rights due diligence requirements. The complaint, filed by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, FEMNET and the National Garment Workers Federation, said Bangladeshi garment factories for the three companies “have not been adequately monitored, endangering workplace safety for employees.”
The U.S. this week sanctioned three people for supporting North Korea through “illicit financing and malicious cyber activity,” the Office of Foreign Assets Control said. Wu Huihui is a China-based based virtual currency trader who helps convert virtual currency stolen by North Korean “actors” working with the U.S.-sanctioned Lazarus Group (see 1909130039), and Cheng Hung Man is a Hong Kong based virtual currency trader who works with Wu to “remit payment to companies in exchange for virtual currency.” OFAC also sanctioned China-based Sim Hyon Sop for working for U.S.-sanctioned Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (see 1907230027) and coordinating “millions of dollars in financial transfers” for North Korea.