The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Dec. 21 removed one person listed under two entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List. The agency deleted the entry for Rodrick Grech, also known as Roderick Grech, a Malta national who was originally sanctioned in 2018 for ties to illegal fuel smuggling between Libya and Europe. OFAC didn’t release more information.
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 Commerce Department published its fall 2021 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including a new mention of an export control rule for crime-control items and a rule that would reorganize provisions of the foreign direct product rule in federal regulations.
The Court of Odense, Denmark, fined bunker fuel supplier Dan-Bunkering over $4.5 million for violating European Union sanctions when it sold 172,000 tons of jet fuel for use in Syria between 2015 and 2017, the EU Sanctions blog reported Dec. 18. The court also fined Dan-Bunkering's parent company, Bunker Holding, over $600,000 and sentenced Bunker Holding's CEO to four months in prison for the sanctions violations. Authorities seized over $2.3 million in profits from Dan-Bunkering. The court said the company intentionally violated the sanctions since it must have known that the Russian military would use the jet fuel in Syria. The sales were made to two Russian entities in 33 transactions.
Zoom Video Communications recently disclosed potential export control violations to the U.S. government, according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Zoom said it submitted a voluntary self-disclosure to the Bureau of Industry and Security in June “regarding compliance with certain U.S. export control laws and regulations.” The company said it may be subject to fines or other penalties. Although it didn’t provide specific details, Zoom said it may have “inadvertently” allowed its platform and products to be used by customers in ways that violate U.S. sanctions laws. It also said it may have allowed its software products to be used by end-users in embargoed or sanctioned countries, which could have violated the Export Administration Regulations. “While we are working to implement additional controls designed to prevent similar activity from occurring in the future, these controls may not be fully effective,” Zoom said in the November filing.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered Bahrain to pay more than $270 million in legal fees and damages to Iranian state-owned Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, The Washington Post reported. The win for the Iranian banks came after Bahrain's forced closure of Future Bank in 2015, the result of allegations that the institution facilitated money laundering and the evasion of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. A three-arbitrator panel at the court held that Bahrain violated its own banking policies, motivated primarily by a political animus toward Iran. Future Bank, established in Bahrain in 2004 with the backing of the two Iranian banks, was forced to close its doors a few weeks after the Iran nuclear agreement was signed by Iran and the U.S, along with five other world power countries.
Elizabeth Rosenberg, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the Treasury Department, was confirmed by the Senate Dec. 18. Rosenberg will oversee some of the agency’s sanctions work (see 2106220037 and 2110050029). The Senate earlier this month confirmed Brian Nelson as undersecretary of Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
The U.S. made “modest progress” during last week's talks on the Iranian nuclear deal, but the path toward all parties rejoining the deal or a similar one remains steep, the State Department said (see 2112100026). While negotiators now have a “common understanding of what the text will be that will serve as the basis for negotiations on nuclear issues,” the U.S. and Iran are still far apart on issues involving sanctions, a senior State Department official said Dec. 17.
The State Department on Dec. 20 identified five additional Chinese officials under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act that are contributing to the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy from Beijing. All five officials -- Chen Dong, Lu Xinning, Tan Tieniu, He Jing and Yin Zonghua -- were previously sanctioned by the Treasury Department in July (see 2107160030). Treasury updated their entries on the Specially Designated Nationals List to reflect the State Department's determination. Under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, the State Department and the Treasury Department must prepare a report to Congress within 60 days that identifies any foreign banks that knowingly conduct “a significant transaction” with any of the five newly added officials. It also requires the U.S. to impose certain additional sanctions on the officials.
New U.S. and European sanctions against Belarus could have broad implications for companies doing business in the region and could signal more multilateral sanctions in the coming months, law firms said this month. The U.S.’s recent restrictions are particularly noteworthy because of a strict new prohibition on certain transactions involving Belarusian sovereign debt, the firms said.