The Treasury Department applauded the United Kingdom’s enactment of its new anti-corruption sanctions regime this week (see 2104260019), saying the authority will allow the two countries to work together more closely on global sanctions issues. “U.S. sanctions are more likely to compel changes in behavior and disrupt threatening activities when pursued in concert with our allies,” Treasury said April 26, adding that sanctions can “incentivize businesses to adopt a more proactive corporate risk and due diligence approach.” But the agency also stressed that sanctions are just “one tool,” and the U.S. will continue to provide guidance and “engagement” to industry. “The United States looks forward to continuing our collaboration with the United Kingdom and other allies to defend human rights, support good governance, and impose tangible and significant costs on those who engage in corruption,” Treasury said.
The European Union announced that North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Iceland and Norway aligned themselves with the bloc's decision to sanction 11 individuals and four entities under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, in an April 27 news release. The 15 designations, along with the sanctioning of four Russian individuals in early March, constitute the first major listings under the new human rights sanctions regime and include individuals and entities from China, North Korea, Libya, Russia, South Sudan and Eritrea (see 2103220024). In its first step against Eritrea since fighting began over Ethiopia's Tigray region, the EU sanctioned the nation's National Security Office for extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests. The other sanctions target a Chinese entity, the Central Public Prosecutor's Office in North Korea and the Kaniyat militia in Libya.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation April 26 published a list of 22 individuals subject to an asset freeze under the new global anti-corruption sanctions regime. The individuals are from across the globe in places such as the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Central America. Included on the list are three South African Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, for their corrupt relationship with former South African President Jacob Zuma. The brothers now live in the UAE, according to OFSI.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on April 26 sanctioned one current and one former Guatemalan official for corruption. The designations target Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Cambara, the former chief of staff for the Alvaro Colom presidential administration, and Felipe Alejos Lorenzana, an elected delegate to Guatemala’s Congress.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control amended its Somalia Sanctions Regulations and reissued them “in their entirety” to provide more guidance, general licenses and statements of licensing policy. The regulations outline new provisions surrounding blocked property, sanctions evasion attempts and new definitions to help industry comply with the sanctions. The new and revised general licenses authorize a range of activities, including certain investments, transactions related to legal payments and certain activities by the U.S. government. The new regulations take effect April 28.
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U.S. universities are opposing the Senate’s Strategic Competition Act of 2021 over a provision that would expand foreign investment screening to include foreign gifts over $1 million given to U.S. universities. In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month, four academic groups said the expanded jurisdiction awarded to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. would subject “many gifts” received by colleges to a CFIUS review and would make it “harder” for colleges to conduct research.
The U.S. government seized an oil tanker for delivering petroleum products to North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions and charged a Singaporean national with conspiracy to evade sanctions, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in an April 23 news release. Kwek Kee Seng of Singapore and the ship, the M/T Courageous, allegedly brought oil to North Korea via ship-to-ship transfers with North Korean ships and direct shipments to the North Korean port of Nampo. The transfers allegedly took place August-December 2019 when the ship stopped transmitting its location. DOJ said satellite imagery revealed the Courageous engaging in the ship-to-ship transfers of more than $1.5 million worth of oil to an OFAC-designated North Korean ship.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published guidance to individuals, entities and nongovernmental organizations on the recently passed anti-corruption sanctions, the agency said in an April 26 news release. The sanctions, which came into force April 26, cover individuals guilty of “serious corruption,” which includes bribery or misappropriation of property.
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit removed a preliminary injunction against the State Department in an April 27 decision, allowing the agency move 3D-printed weapons off the U.S. Munitions List and onto the Commerce Control List. A State rule issued in 2020 would have made that change, but it was partly blocked as part a lawsuit filed by 20 states.