The U.K. added 34 people and 33 entries to its Russia sanctions list on Feb. 24, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. In addition to listing Russian companies, OFSI sanctioned companies based in Hong Kong, China, Germany, Thailand, India, Ukraine, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan for contributing to Russia's economy or war effort, along with businesspeople and military figures from Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, North Korea and Israel for contributing to the destabilization of Ukraine or operating in a sector of strategic significance to Russia.
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 30 people, entities and ships helping to sell and move Iranian petroleum products, including oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker managers in India and China, and Iranian oil officials. The Treasury Department said the newly designated tankers have helped ship tens of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Matt Borman, a longtime senior career official overseeing export control regulations at the Bureau of Industry and Security, is expected to leave BIS soon, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Commerce Department this week to decline to give the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to confidential business data, including information disclosed in export license applications filed with the Bureau of Industry and Security.
A new White House memo on President Donald Trump’s “America-first investment policy” previews efforts to expand both inbound and outbound foreign investment restrictions, tamp down on the use of mitigation agreements, fast-track investment deals from certain allies and more.
John Eisenberg, former legal adviser to the National Security Council who served during the first Trump administration, is President Donald Trump's pick to lead DOJ’s National Security Division, DOJ announced last week. Eisenberg also previously held several roles within DOJ, including in the office of the deputy attorney general. If confirmed, Eisenberg will oversee the division that prosecutes various export control, sanctions, foreign investment and other national security-related violations.
A federal court in Kentucky found that Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations licensing requirements for technical data don't violate the First Amendment as a restriction on free speech. Judge David Hale of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky said the licensing requirements "advance important government interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech" and don't burden "substantially more speech than necessary to further those interests" (United States v. Pascoe, W.D. Ky. # 3:22-88).
Gal Haimovich, an Israeli national and owner of a freight forwarding company, was sentenced last week to two years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in September as part of a scheme to illegally ship aircraft parts and avionics from U.S. manufacturers and suppliers to Russia (see 2409110018). DOJ said Haimovich -- who admitted to deceiving U.S. companies about the destination of the goods, some of which were sent to a sanctioned Russian airline Siberian Airlines (see 2412090012 -- also forfeited $2,024,435.44 to the U.S. government.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., plans to reintroduce a bill that would require the administration to develop a strategy to use sanctions and other tools to protect civilians from Sudan’s civil war, a spokesperson said Feb. 21.
A European Parliament report published this month analyzes how the EU is approaching lifting sanctions against Syria after the December overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime.