The U.K. amended or corrected a number of entries under several of its sanctions regimes. Under the Syria sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the entries for Fares Chehabi, president of the Aleppo Chamber of Industry; Khodr Ali Taher, director of Ella Towers; and the Syrian Petroleum Company. OFSI then corrected the entry for Adnan Slakho, former minister for industry. Under the Libya sanctions list, OFSI amended the entry for Khalifa Ghwell, defense minister of the General National Congress. Under the Iran (Human Rights) sanctions list, OFSI amended seven entries. This listings for Ali Khalili, Ali-Akbar Yasaghi, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, Mortez Tamaddon, Mostafa Bozorgnia, Moussa Khalilollahi and Toraj Kazemi were updated, and all of the individuals remain subject to an asset freeze. Four entries under the Chemical Weapons sanctions regime were amended: the agency updated the listings for Vladimir Stephanovich Alexseyev, first deputy head of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency; Vladimir Mikhailovich Bogdanov, former director of the Criminalistics Institute and head of the FSB (Federal Security Service) Special Technology Center; Kirill Vasilyev, director of the Criminalistics Institute at the FSB; and Alexei Semenovich Sedov, head of the FSB 2nd Service. All are believed to have been involved in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology published a report this week on China’s state-operated laboratory system, which is used to drive the country’s innovation and research and ultimately reduce its dependence on foreign technogloies. The report includes a dataset of 469 state labs, including a table of labs with at least one "supporting unit" subject to U.S. sanctions or export controls, such as the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
The U.K. in two June 16 notices added entries to its sanctions regimes on Russia and Myanmar. Under the Russia sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation sanctioned 12 people and corrected one entry. Under the Myanmar sanctions list, OFSI added six entries.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a network of Iranian petrochemical producers, as well as front companies in China and the United Arab Emirates. The front companies support Triliance and PCC, which broker sales of Iranian petrochemicals to China and East Asia, circumventing sanctions, OFAC said in a June 16 press release. The agency sanctioned two people and nine entities.
Sanctions regimes over the last 20 years have become broader and more comprehensive, which has created unintended consequences for industry and “ordinary people,” said Erica Moret, a senior researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute, speaking during a June 16 virtual conference hosted by the Center for a New American Security. She said countries should look to narrow their sanctions measures and provide clear exemptions or risk further over-compliance.
Export controls on their own haven’t historically proven to be very effective in stopping U.S. adversaries from acquiring illegal technologies and components, said Daniel Gerstein, a former export control official at the Department of Homeland Security. Gerstein, speaking during a June 16 Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee meeting, said the U.S. and other countries have “ample information telling us that they have not been particularly effective, even for sanctions regimes.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security on June 16 suspended the export privileges of Belavia Belarusian Airlines, the country’s state-owned national airline, for violating U.S. export controls against Belarus. BIS issued a 180-day temporary denial order for Belavia, which bans it from participating in transactions subject to the Export Administration Regulations.
Angel Del Villar and Luca Scalisi, two California music business executives, were charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act by doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced June 14. The two face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced a bill June 13 that would add Taiwan to Country Group A:5 under the Export Administration Regulations. The bill would seek to add Taiwan to the country group specifically “for purposes” of License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization, which authorizes certain exports, reexports and in-country transfers for items that would normally require a license. The bill's full text wasn’t immediately released.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told an audience at the American Association of Exporters and Importers conference June 15 that his discussion draft of a Customs modernization bill elicited some consternation, but that it was shared because he was trying to figure out "how do we get stakeholders in a good place so that we can have a customs modernization package?"