The State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program is working well, a senior State Department official told reporters Nov. 7. The program was most recently used by the agency to offer up to $15 million for information that may further disrupt the U.S.-sanctioned Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (see 1909040055). The State Department announced the reward in hopes that it will lead to more sanctions as it continues its maximum-pressure campaign against Iran.
The Trump administration completed its review of its final rule to move export controls of firearms from the State Department to the Commerce Department, clearing the way for the regulatory changes to potentially be completed this year.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation removed sanctions from two Iraqi entities, according to a Nov. 7 notice. The decision to remove sanctions from the two entities -- Iraq’s State Organization for Irrigation Projects and its State Organization for Land Reclamation -- reflects recent decisions by the United Nations Security Council, OFSI said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three Nicaraguan government officials involved in human rights abuses, election fraud and corruption Treasury said Nov. 7. Ramon Antonio Avellan Medal, deputy director general of the Nicaraguan National Police, was designated for carrying out the government's “repressive measures,” including arbitrary arrests and executions, the agency said. Lumberto Ignacio Campbell Hooker, acting president of the Nicaraguan Supreme Electoral Council, was sanctioned for running an entity that ensures President Daniel Ortega wins elections. Roberto Jose Lopez Gomez, director of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute, was designated for corruption.
US to 'Aggressively' Enforce US Sanctions Against Shipping Companies, State Department Official Says
The U.S. plans to target and “aggressively” enforce measures against shipping companies across the globe that violate U.S. sanctions, a top State Department official said, according to a Nov. 6 Reuters report. David Peyman, deputy assistant secretary of state for counter threat finance and sanctions, told reporters in London that ships are being used as a “key artery to evade sanctions,” according to Reuters. “If behavior doesn’t change, notwithstanding our very frank conversations and clear messages, then we do look toward fully and aggressively and consistently enforcing U.S. sanctions across the board as a means to change behavior of bad actors,” he said.
A Florida-based aviation investment management company was fined about $210,000 after it committed 12 violations of U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a Nov. 7 notice. The company, Apollo Aviation Group, which has since been bought by The Carlyle Group and is now Carlyle Aviation Partners, committed the violations in transactions involving the lease of three aircraft engines, the notice said. Apollo allegedly leased the engines to a United Arab Emirates company, which subleased the engines to a Ukrainian airline, which installed the engines on an aircraft wet leased to Sudan Airways.
Companies and trade groups are concerned about the consequences of the Commerce Department’s efforts to restrict sales of emerging technologies and are growing impatient with a delay that has stretched several months, stakeholders said in interviews. Nearly a year after Commerce issued advance notice that they planned to review the technologies, some companies are confused about the delay and fear the controls won’t be fully coordinated with U.S. allies, causing their customers to simply seek foreign sellers.
The United Kingdom has been “far too slow” in imposing unilateral sanctions against human rights abusers and should appoint a senior official responsible for implementing sanctions policy, Britain's House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said in a Nov. 4 report. The report, which was the committee’s second of 2019, makes several sanctions-related recommendations to Britain's Foreign Commonwealth Office and is critical of the country’s approach to sanctions. The committee asked for updates to its suggestions by May 2020.
In the Nov. 4-6 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Switzerland adopted adjustments to its sanctions against North Korea that align with the exceptions of the export ban agreed to by the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee, Baker McKenzie said in a Nov. 6 post. The exceptions allow for exports of humanitarian aid to North Korea and will “increase legal certainty for those companies involved,” the post said. Switzerland’s amendment will take effect Dec. 1.