The State Department last year limited its new open general license pilot program to defense reexports and retransfers because of a database issue with CBP, and may eventually look to expand the authorization to include regular exports, said Dilan Wickrema, an official with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. “Frankly, the reason why we haven't been able to include exports into an OGL yet is because we would have to amend CBPs database to allow and accept some kind of code indicating that an OGL was used,” Wickrema said.
The U.S. should take more steps to counter corruption and sanctions evasion efforts by Russian kleptocrats, including through a new multilateral anti-corruption council, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said this week. While he applauded recent funding passed by Congress to provide more resources for government enforcement efforts, he said lawmakers have more work to do to close sanctions loopholes.
Jason Prince, former chief counsel at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has moved to Crowell & Moring as a partner, the firm announced. He will advise clients on sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia and other nations and parties. During his time at OFAC, Prince "oversaw the legal design of new sanctions measures and led the legal review of all major OFAC enforcement, compliance, licensing, litigation, and regulatory actions," the firm said.
The U.K. House of Commons' International Trade Committee opened a call for evidence as part of its inquiry on the U.K.'s trade sanctions on Russia. Interested experts, stakeholders and parties that can speak to the role the Department for International Trade plays in developing, implementing and enforcing the trade-related parts of the sanctions on Russia can submit evidence by March 17. The committee said it also wants evidence pertaining to the impact of Russian trade-related sanctions on U.K. businesses, supply chains and consumers, as well as the effectiveness of government support in mitigating the impact of the sanctions.
The U.K. added seven entries to its Iran (Human Rights) sanctions regime, in a Jan. 23 notice. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation imposed the restrictions on five individuals and two entities. The individuals are Salar Abnoush, vice commander of the Basij, an Iranian military unit; Ahmad Fazelian, deputy prosecutor general for Iran's public law affairs; Kiyumars Heidari, Iranian army ground forces commander; Hossein Nejat, deputy commander-in-chief of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps at Sarallah headquarters; and Qasem Rezaei, deputy commander of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces. The two entities are the Basij Cooperative Foundation and Basij Resistance Force.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced Mun Chol Myong, a North Korean national, to time served of 45 months in prison for money laundering offenses, DOJ announced. Mun is the first North Korean national to be extradited to the U.S., and he will be subject to deportation after the completion of his sentence, DOJ said.
Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the New York FBI counterintelligence division, and Sergey Shestakov, a Russian court interpreter and former diplomat, were charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. The two were charged with one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, one count of violating the IEEPA, one count of conspiring to launder money and one count of money laundering, each carrying a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Shestakov also was charged with one count of making false statements, which has a five-year maximum prison sentence.
Rosatom, a Russian state nuclear corporation, has worked to supply Russia’s defense industry with controlled components, technology and raw material for missile fuel, The Washington Post reported Jan. 20. The company has offered to provide goods to the Russian military and Russian weapons manufacturers that are subject to sanctions, the report said, including Almaz-Antey, a missile systems producer, and NPK Tekhmash, a manufacturer of unguided bombs and multiple missile launch systems. Although Rosatom has “long presented itself as a civilian entity operating nuclear power plants in commercial partnerships across the globe,” Russia’s war in Ukraine is “exposing how closely the company” is “intertwined” with Russia’s military-industrial complex, the report said. Rosatom told the paper all of its claims “are completely untrue.”
The U.S. plans to impose new sanctions on Russia’s Wagner Group this week, including by designating it a significant Transnational Criminal Organization, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Jan. 20. Kirby said the sanctions will target the private military company’s support network “across multiple continents” and “recognize the transcontinental threat that Wagner poses, including through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cooperative Foundation along with five of its board members, Iran's deputy minister of intelligence and security, and four senior IRGC commanders.