Senators said this week they are close to finalizing negotiations on a bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia both before and after it potentially invades Ukraine. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chair of the chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee, said Feb. 1 that he plans to meet soon with Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the committee’s top Republican, to finalize the bill.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The State Department this week fined a U.S. electro-optics equipment manufacturer $840,000 after it illegally exported or tried to export defense items to several countries, including China and Lebanon. Torrey Pines Logic didn’t secure required export licenses before shipping its products, illegally participated in defense export activities while it was ineligible and didn’t maintain adequate export transaction records, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said in a charging letter released Jan. 31. TPL ultimately agreed to a series of remedial measures to improve its export compliance program, including hiring a DDTC-approved compliance officer.
The State Department this week proposed several changes to its defense export regulations, including one that would clarify definitions for “export” and “reexport,” another that would change language in its Canadian exemption and a third that would revise its exemption for certain transfers to dual or third-country nationals. The agency also proposed corrections that would fix administrative errors in the regulations. Comments on the proposed changes, which were released Feb. 1, are due April 4.
Torres Trade Advisory, a business and trade consulting firm, hired former export enforcement agent Donald Pearce as a senior adviser for its global risk, monitorship and investigations practice, the firm announced Jan. 20. Pearce previously served as a special agent with the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement, where he helped in the prosecutions of “precedent-setting” export control cases and wrote the 2016 amendments to the Wassenaar Arrangement's Best Practices for Export Control Enforcement.
The United Kingdom approved a humanitarian exception to its Afghanistan sanctions regime in line with the carve-out permitted by the United Nations. The change says activities that "support basic human needs in Afghanistan" don't violate the restrictive measures on the country. "Earlier this week the UK government adopted into law a humanitarian exception from UN sanctions meaning aid agencies can operate without fear of undue legal repercussions," the Department for International Trade said Jan. 28. "Previously, charities and humanitarian agencies trying to bring aid into Afghanistan faced legal difficulties as a result of UN sanctions against senior Taliban leaders."
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended 48 entries on its Iran (Human Rights) sanctions regime and 20 entries on its restrictive measures list for Venezuela in two separate financial sanctions notices. OFSI also delisted four entries from the Iran sanctions list: Ahmad Zargar, former head of the "Organization for the Preservation of Morality"; Hassan Haddad, former deputy safety officer of Tehran Revolutionary Court; Mohammad Hejazi, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Sarollah Corps in Tehran; and Seyyed Hasan Firuzabadi, former military adviser to the supreme leader.
The United Kingdom announced various changes to its strategic export controls licensing statistics and strategic export controls reports and statistics website, the U.K. Department for International Trade said Jan. 28. The changes stem from the introduction of data on Standard Individual Export Licenses processed by the new LITE licensing system being used a "small number of beta users," the DIT said. Changes include a new release date for the official statistics covering Q3 of 2021, which is now Feb. 11; the unavailability of some data from the 29 licenses processed in LITE for Q3; and various missing types of data including SIEL end-user types and processing times.
Eight countries aligned with the European Union's decision to add one individual to its Libya sanctions regime, the European Council said Jan 31. The council on Dec. 13 added Aleksandr Sergeevich Kuznetsov to the sanctions list due to his position in the Wagner Group, a Russia-based private military entity (see 2112130009). Kuznetsov, commander of the Wagner Group's 1st Attack and Reconnaissance Co., was injured in Libya while fighting alongside the Libyan National Liberation Army in 2019, the council said. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Georgia also imposed sanctions on Kuznetsov -- a move welcomed by the EU, the council said.
The U.N. Security Council on Jan. 28 amended one Libya-related entry on its sanctions list. The UNSC revised identifying information for Saadi Qadhafi.