The Office of Foreign Assets Control released a guidance aimed to help the "virtual currency industry navigate and comply with OFAC sanctions," it said Oct. 15. The guide includes a set of frequently asked questions and case studies about virtual currencies and sanctions.
A recent sanctions enforcement case highlighted the various export compliance hurdles associated with sales through overseas distributors, which is becoming one of the “greatest areas of export compliance risk,” Williams Mullen said in an Oct. 13 alert. In the case, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said Texas-based NewTek sold products to third-country distributors despite having knowledge those products were intended for an Iran-based reseller (see 2109100007), which ultimately led to sanctions violations.
A multinational semiconductor company may have violated U.S. export controls when it transacted with two Chinese technology companies on the Entity List, according to its October Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Arteris, which is headquartered in California, said it maintained a business “relationship” with HiSilicon Technologies Co. and Chongxin Bada Technology Development Co., Ltd., which may have resulted in “inadvertent” violations of the Export Administration Regulations. The Bureau of Industry and Security added HiSilicon to the Entity List in 2019 as an affiliate of Huawei (see 1905160072) and added Bada in 2020 (see 2008260038).
The United Kingdom updated the physical address and email address of the Enforcement of Strategic Exports, Sanctions and Intellectual Property Rights office, the Department for International Trade said. The office is responsible for receiving and processing voluntary disclosures relating to already exported goods that should have received an export license. The address is 14 Westfield Ave., Stratford, London E20 1HZ; the email address is michael.halstead@hmrc.gov.uk.
United Kingdom-based nongovernmental organization Redress has published a template for anyone seeking to submit Magnitsky sanctions evidence to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. NGOs, lawyers, human rights defenders, activists, journalists and academics may use the template to suggest designations under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020, the group said.
President Joe Biden extended a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions against narcotics traffickers in Colombia, the White House said Oct. 12. The traffickers continue to pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. security and cause “an extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm in the United States and abroad.” The emergency was extended for one year beyond Oct. 21.
The U.S. and more than 30 other countries are meeting virtually this week to discuss how to better counter and disrupt ransomware attacks, including through sanctions, the White House said Oct. 13. The meetings come less than a month after the U.S. sanctioned SUEX, a large virtual currency exchange, for helping to facilitate transactions related to illegal ransomware attacks (see 2109210031). The White House said the Treasury Department “will continue to disrupt and hold accountable these ransomware actors and their money laundering networks,” and the meetings this week could be a forum for discussing multilateral actions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S.-based telecommunications company $1.87 million for illegally exporting goods to Vietnam, BIS said in an Oct. 12 order. California-based VTA Telecom, a subsidiary of a Vietnamese state-owned telecom company, included false statements in its export applications to hide the true end-uses for the exports, BIS said.
The United Kingdom updated its guidance for nongovernmental organizations and others relating to counterterrorist sanctions and export controls, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said Oct. 11. The guidance walks NGOs through export control and sanctions-related FAQs, including what forms of transactions are banned under financial sanctions, how the sanctions apply to NGOs and where to check if an NGO it might be dealing with a designated entity.
The United Kingdom updated its export control licensing data for April 1 - June 30, 2021, the Department for International Trade said. In a table on the overall licensing statistics, the U.K. saw 3,593 Standard Individual Export Licenses applications, with 3,526 issued. The U.K. also saw 93 Open Individual Export License applications, with 86 issued. The U.K. saw 98 Open General Export License registrations in this period for exports of dual-use items to EU member states.