Laboratory instrument manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc. agreed to pay $25,000 to settle allegations it violated the Controlled Substances Act by illicitly buying and distributing regulated chemicals, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced April 29. Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., an affiliate of Thermo Fisher Scientific, failed to file export declarations when shipping covered chemicals to foreign customers, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The customers were other Thermo Fisher affiliates in India, the U.K. and South Korea, according to the settlement agreement.
The U.K.'s Russia sanctions pertaining to internet-related matters went into effect April 29, imposing new restrictions on trade in services, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said. The sanctions move mandates that social media companies must take "reasonable steps" to stop the content generated directly on the platform or shared on the platform by a sanctioned individual. Further, internet service providers, including both fixed and wireless broadband providers, must also take reasonable steps to stop users of the service in the U.K. from accessing websites "provided by a designated person" (i.e., URL blocking). App stores also must take steps to stop users in the U.K. from accessing an application provided by a designated individual.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued Russia-related sanctions General Licence 30. The license authorizes transactions involving new debt or new equity with Gazprom Germania through 12:01 a.m. EDT pn Sept. 30. Prior to the license, Directive 3 had blocked new debt and equity transactions with Gazprom-related entities, and several other Russian financial institutions, after March 26.
The EU will look to ban Russian oil by year's end, placing restrictions on imports gradually until all Russian oil is banned, Bloomberg reported April 30. In addition, the EU will look to sanction more banks from Russia and Belarus, including Sberbank, to be cut off from SWIFT, the international interbank messaging and payment system, Bloomberg reported. The U.S. and U.K. both already have restrictions on Sberbank.
Congress should prioritize provisions in President Joe Biden’s recently proposed Ukraine-related aid package that will increase exports of military equipment to Ukraine and surrounding partners, said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also stressed the importance of military aid but said the U.S. should take a broader look at global military supply chains to make sure it isn’t depleting its own supplies and those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Israel’s Defense Ministry is granting fewer export licenses to the country’s spyware companies amid mounting pressure from the U.S., according to an April 25 report from Globes, an Israeli business news site. The report said Israeli company Nemesis was forced to shut down last month after the country’s Defense Export Control Agency refused to grant it export licenses, and other industry executives have complained about an “abrupt change in policy” toward companies exporting spyware. Other companies -- including NSO Group, Cognyte, QuaDream and Wintego -- are on a “short list” of businesses that have struggled in recent months from a “lack of approvals for new deals and cancellation of export permits that have expired,” the report said.
Egypt recently suspended imports from more than 800 companies after they failed to comply with an Egyptian decree that requires registration of certain production facilities, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported April 29. Under the decree, certain imported products -- including dairy products, oils, fruits, textiles and household appliances -- can be released in Egypt only if their manufacturing facilities are registered with the country’s General Organization for Import and Export Control. The import ban was applied to companies in the U.S., United Arab Emirates, the U.K., China, Germany, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Malaysia and South Korea, the report said.
The European Council announced in three separate notices April 28 that a group of non-EU European countries aligned with the union's recent sanctions moves on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine; on Iran; and on Myanmar.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced additional sanctions on 287 current and former members of the U.K. Parliament in retaliation for the U.K.'s sanctions on 386 members of the Russian State Duma, according to an unofficial translation. The restrictions amount to a travel ban and include Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons.
The EU General Court annulled the European Council acts keeping Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo on the EU's Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions list. The court found that Ilunga Luyoyo, the former commander of the National Intervention Legion in the Congolese national police, no longer held the positions that landed him on the list and that the council failed to give sufficient evidence linking him and the security situation in the DRC, according to an unofficial translation.