U.S. sanctions have “abjectly failed” to stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and instead have allowed the regime’s weapons efforts to grow stronger, Reuters said in a Nov. 4 analysis. U.S. policymakers can now only “pick through the wreckage and seek to determine what went wrong,” the analysis said. "We've had a policy failure. It's a generational policy failure," Joseph DeThomas, a former U.S. official in the Clinton and Obama administrations who worked on North Korea and Iran sanctions, told Reuters. A senior U.S. administration official agreed that sanctions have failed to stop North Korea’s missile programs but told Reuters that “if the sanctions didn't exist, (North Korea) would be much, much further along, and much more of a threat to its neighbors to the region and to the world."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four members of the Islamic State Group operating in South Africa for providing technical, financial or material support to the terrorist group. The agency also designated four companies owned or controlled by those individuals. The designations target Nufael Akbar, Yunus Mohamad Akbar, Mohamad Akbar and Umar Akbar along with the companies: MA Gold Traders, Bailey Holdings, Flexoseal Waterproofing Solutions and HJ Bannister Construction. The agency also designated Sultans Construction, Ashiq Jewellers, Ineos Trading and Shaahista Shoes.
The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division has identified nearly 50 people and entities for potential Russia-related sanctions violations as of September, the agency said in its annual report released last week. The division said it has worked as a “key player” in U.S. sanctions-related enforcement efforts against Russia, and its report includes several case examples of sanctions investigations, including its efforts that led to the September indictment of Viktor Zelinger, an alleged leader of an Eastern European organized crime syndicate linked to “high-level Russian mafia members.” An IRS official told reporters during a news conference last week that the agency has so far opened 20 criminal investigations into Russian sanctions evasion attempts, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A U.S. hardware supplier said it may have violated U.S. export controls by selling to a Chinese foundry on the Entity List. MaxLinear, which sells highly integrated radio-frequency analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, disclosed it submitted an "initial notification" of voluntary self-disclosure to the Bureau of Industry and Security in October and its sale may have violated the Export Administration Regulations because it never obtained a license.
As U.S. chip and technology companies continue to grapple with the U.S’s latest export restrictions on China (see 2211010042), a number of firms fear the controls will hurt their sales and exacerbate uncertainty in the semiconductor sector and the industry’s supply chains. In filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission this month, at least one firm projected revenue losses while others said they are still assessing the impact of the complex controls and whether they can secure export licenses.
New U.K. sanctions regulations will enter into force on Dec. 5. The measures move up the implementation date for import bans relating to Russian oil and oil products, from Dec. 31; bar the supply or delivery by ship of Russian oil and oil products from Russia to a third country or from a third country to another third country; ban the provision of financial services to facilitate the supply or delivery of Russian oil and oil products from Russia to a third country; grant exceptions to the measures where the banned oil and oil products originate in a non-Russian country and are not owned by a person connected with Russia and are only being loaded in, leaving or transiting through Russia; and give the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation the power to hit offenders with civil monetary penalties.
The U.K. issued a general license under its Russia sanctions regime pertaining to "transactions related to agricultural commodities including the provision of insurance and other services." The license permits agricultural commodities exporters or Department for International Trade license holders to receive funds from listed individuals and entities in connection with the export, sale, production and transport of agricultural commodities. These exporters and license holders can also transfer funds to relevant institutions in connection with the export of these goods, to U.K. corporates, to designated parties and to any other individual in connection with the export of agricultural commodities. The license was issued indefinitely, though the Treasury can revoke it at any time.
Chinese technology companies are “scrambling” to hire engineers from foreign companies that are closing their business in China due to new U.S. export controls (see 2210070049), Nikkei reported Nov. 4. The report said Huawei, Alibaba and other chip developers issued job postings after they learned U.S. chipmaker Marvell planned to lay off hundreds of workers in China. Some Chinese companies are offering to pay a higher-than-expected salary for these workers because “chip talent has never been in more demand and competition for hiring is intense,” a Chengdu-based recruiter told Nikkei.
The U.S. and Canada designated two Haitian nationals for their connection to illicit narcotics trafficking, the countries said Nov. 4. The two designees are Joseph Lambert, the sitting president of the Haitian Senate who has held political positions in Haiti for 20 years, and Youri Latortue, a former Haitian senator and a longtime politician.
Beijing-based lawyer Robert Lewis and Lexology on Nov. 3 published a summary and an outline of a recent Chinese webinar on the new U.S. semiconductor and advanced computing export controls (see 2210070049). The webinar, hosted by Chinese law firm Chance Bridge and Renmin University last month, discussed strategies for Chinese companies to manage the new restrictions. Speakers discussed how the new controls differ from restrictions placed on Huawei, what types of technology are subject to the new restrictions, how Chinese companies can work around the controls and more.