The Biden administration announced an interagency review and strategy to better combat corruption, including through the use of sanctions. In a June 3 memo, President Joe Biden directed the Treasury, Commerce and State departments, along with other agencies and offices, to consider recommendations for an improved anti-corruption strategy, which should rely on asset freezing, sanctions, enforcement actions and more robust ownership reporting to Treasury. The U.S. should be “building upon targeted anticorruption sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act and similar authorities,” the White House said in a fact sheet. The U.S. should also better work with allies to counter corruption by foreign leaders, state-owned companies and others by “closing loopholes exploited by these actors to interfere in democratic processes in the United States and abroad.” The interagency review will take place over the next 200 days.
The State Department announced debarments against seven people convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act. The debarments, which will be imposed starting June 4, target Ronald Adjei Danso, Julian Alonso Higuera, Qingshan Li (see 2006150026), Si Mong Park (see 2009220055), Maritza Rubio, Wei Sun (see 2011180019) and Randy Lew Williams. All seven are “generally ineligible” to participate in activity controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations for three years following their dates of convictions. At the end of that period, they must apply to be reinstated from their debarment before engaging in ITAR activities.
President Joe Biden issued a new executive order expanding a Trump-era policy that banned investments in Chinese military companies (see 2105190009). The order, issued June 3, includes an initial list of 59 entities and expands the scope of the restrictions to cover companies operating in China’s surveillance technology sector, which the White House said produces technologies to commit human rights violations against Muslim minorities.
More than 20 House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans said they remain “deeply concerned” about the Biden administration's decision to waive sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project (see 2105260019) and said they weren’t satisfied by the State Department’s justification. The lawmakers, including the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, said the sanctions waiver contradicts the administration's “repeated public opposition” to the completion of the pipeline.
The U.S. sanctioned six Bulgarians and 64 entities for their “extensive roles in corruption" in Bulgaria, the Treasury and State departments said June 2. OFAC said the designations represented the “single largest action targeting corruption to date” and demonstrated the agency’s commitment to sanctioning corrupt business networks. The measures target former and current Bulgarian government officials -- Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, Delyan Slavchev Peevski and Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov -- along with 64 of their entities. The State Department also announced that it designated Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev and Krasimir Tomov, as well as Peevski and Zhelyazkov, for corruption.
The U.S. hasn’t ruled out imposing sanctions against Russia for its potential involvement in the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline last month, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters June 2. While President Joe Biden has said he doesn’t believe the Russian government was involved in the attack, he said the people behind the attack are likely living in Russia. “We’re not taking options off of the table,” Psaki said when asked whether the U.S. was considering more sanctions. Psaki said Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin may discuss the matter when they meet later this month. She also said the U.S. is “doing our own review of a range of options.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a general license authorizing transactions between certain companies and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, OFAC said June 1. General License No. 8H, which replaces No. 8G (see 2011170015), authorizes transactions between PdVSA and Chevron, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International, with certain restrictions, through 12:01 a.m. EST Dec. 1. The license was scheduled to expire June 3.
Canada released its 2020 report on military goods exports this week, detailing changes last year to export control policies and providing statistics for a range of export information, including country data and permit licensing information. Canada said it “slightly improved” permit processing times in 2020 and listed Saudi Arabia as its largest non-U.S. export destination. Canada also said it denied 58 applications for exports of military, dual-use and strategic goods or technologies in 2020, a significant increase from the previous five years, when it had denied fewer than 10 permits per year. Forty of the 58 denied permits were for dual-use exports to China or Hong Kong.
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A congressional commission said the Commerce Department has “failed” to carry out its export control responsibilities over emerging and foundational technologies, which is hindering the work of other government bodies and allowing some sensitive dual-use technologies to be freely exported from the U.S. The commission said Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which is in charge of the export control effort, has taken “limited action to strengthen or introduce new controls” since its 2018 congressional mandate and should look to other agencies to help with the process.