An Iranian citizen pleaded guilty to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Iran sanctions after she tried to illegally export gas turbine parts from the U.S. to Iran, the Department of Justice said in a July 19 press release. Mahin Mojtahedzadeh faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine when sentenced in November.
A Senate bill would authorize sanctions on foreign persons, including government officials, responsible for illegally trading tobacco products. The bill, introduced June 25 and titled the “Combating the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products Act,” would freeze assets and block funds of sanctioned people under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The bill would also impose travel bans. The bill states that the "illicit trade in tobacco products or their precursors is a multibillion dollar business that fuels organized crime, fosters public corruption, undermines public health goals, and finances terrorist groups that threaten global security and stability."
The European Union Council removed one person from its North Korea sanctions regime and updated the alias for an entity in the same regime, the council said in a July 17 notice. The council removed sanctions from RI Pyong Chol and updated an alias for the Maritime Administrative Bureau, which “assisted in the evasion of” United Nations Security Council sanctions, “including by renaming and re-registering assets of designated entities and providing false documentation to vessels subject to” UN sanctions, the notice said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four officials of Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence accused of human rights abuses, Treasury said in a July 19 press release. The sanctioned officials are: Division General Rafael Ramón Blanco Marrero, Colonel Hannover Esteban Guerrero Mijares, Major Alexander Enrique Granko Arteaga and Colonel Rafael Antonio Franco Quintero. The sanctions follow alleged human rights abuses involved in the arrest, torture and death of Venezuelan Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, Treasury said. OFAC used Acosta’s death as justification for sanctioning the Venezuelan military agency on July 11 (see 1907110040).
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a senior member of Hizballah’s External Security Organization (ESO), which planned terrorist attacks near Lebanon, Treasury said in a July 19 press release. Salman Raouf Salman was added to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List, the agency said. Hizballah’s ESO, the group’s “elite unit” run by U.S.-sanctioned Talal Hamiyah, carries out Hizballah’s international missions, the press release said. Salman is responsible for the group’s foreign operations in Lebanon and terrorism-related activities elsewhere, including in Buenos Aires, Panama, Colombia and Brazil, Treasury said.
The Commerce Department’s presumption of denial for Huawei-related export licenses may no longer apply, Akin Gump lawyers said during a July 18 webinar.
Britain's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated identifying information for a financial sanctions entry related to South Sudan, the office said in a July 18 notice. The entry, Paul Malong AWAN, is still subject to an asset freeze, the notice said.
The State Department sanctioned four Burmese officials and their immediate family members for “gross human rights violations” related to Burma’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingya, the State Department said in a July 16 press release. The department sanctioned Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Soe Win, Brigadier General Than Oo and Brigadier General Aung Aung. The State Department said these sanctions make the U.S. “the first government to publicly take action with respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Iraqi nationals for human rights violations, Treasury said in a July 17 press release. Two are “militia figures” and two are former Iraqi governors, Treasury said. Rayan al-Kildani and Waad Qado, leaders of Iraqi militias, were designated for human rights abuses that include “intimidation, extortion, robbery, kidnapping” and other violent acts. Nawfal Hammadi al-Sultan and Ahmed al-Jubouri, two former government officials, were designated for corruption, smuggling, misusing funds and other charges. All four were designated under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a “network of front companies and agents involved” in procuring enriched uranium for Iran’s nuclear program, Treasury said in a July 18 press release. The entities and people are based in Iran, China and Belgium and worked as a “procurement network” for Iran’s Centrifuge Technology Company, which produces centrifuges in facilities belonging to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Treasury said.