Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, a citizen of Lebanon and Belgium, and Talal Chahine, a Lebanese citizen, were charged as part of a conspiracy to launder money, cause U.S. citizens to conduct illegal transactions with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and conduct illegal transactions with a sanctioned terrorist, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Feb. 24. Each charge carries the possible punishment of up to 20 years in prison.
Canada this week sanctioned 12 senior Iranian military and law enforcement officials who “have participated in gross and systematic human rights violations.” The designations target several members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Law Enforcement Forces, including Seyeh Sadegh Hosseini, an IRGC general, and Rahim Jahanbakhsh, an LEF second brigadier general. Canada said the Iranian government “continues to brutally oppress its people and to deny them their fundamental rights and freedoms.”
Australia joined the U.S. and other G-7 countries (see 2302240028, 2302240025 and 2302240054) in imposing new sanctions against Russia last week, designating an additional 90 people and 40 entities. The new sanctions target Russian ministers overseeing the country’s energy, natural resources, industry, education, labor, migration and health sectors, Australia said, and also officials “perpetuating the Kremlin's mistruths to shore up support for President [Vladimir] Putin.” Australia also said it will provide additional security assistance to Ukraine, including “Uncrewed Aerial Systems,” which “provide a battlefield intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as they continue to fight.”
One of the “most challenging” aspects of complying with U.S. and Western sanctions against Russia during the past year has been the service restrictions, which has created hurdles for companies trying to understand “exactly what types of activities fall within the scope of the covered services,” Sidley Austin said. In a Feb. 22 alert describing key compliance lessons from one year of Russia sanctions, the law firm said the service restrictions are “broad,” affecting everything from accounting to quantum computing, and not always carried out equally across various sanctions regimes.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued new guidance for providing humanitarian aid to sanctioned jurisdictions. The six-page fact sheet describes recently issued or revised general licenses available to international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and others, including what types of activities are allowed and what types of transactions banks can authorize.
Two U.S. manufacturers welcomed December proposals by the State Department that would expand its regulatory definition of activities that don’t qualify as exports, but they urged the agency to provide even further flexibility. In comments released this month, both Boeing and Maxar Technologies said the agency should expand a proposal that would allow companies to avoid submitting license applications for when a foreign government’s armed forces or U.N. personnel takes a defense article out of a previously approved country.
The Commerce, State and Justice departments fined an American 3D printing company more than $25 million combined after it committed a range of export violations, including illegal shipments of aerospace technology and metal alloy powder to China and controlled design documents to Germany.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with the bloc's recent decision to extend the sanctions regime against individuals and entities related to the situation in Tunisia for another 12 months, the European Council announced last week. The restrictions are now set to lapse Jan. 31, 2024. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision, the council said.
The EU renewed its "terrorist list," the sanctions regime that sets an asset freeze on individuals and entities "with a view to combatting terrorism," the European Council announced late last week. Sanctions currently apply to 13 individuals and 21 groups and entities on the list. The list is reviewed at least every six months.
The U.K. unfurled a new round of sanctions on Russia to mark the one-year anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced. The sanctions ban the export of "every item Ukraine has found Russia using on the battlefield to date" and place individual restrictions on another 92 individuals and entities. Sanctions target parties connected to state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom and Russian President Vladimir's Putin's closest allies, including his former chief of security and the CEO of Nord Stream 2, the FCDO said.