Latvia’s Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) fined a Swedish bank more than $1.8 million dollars for anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, the FCMC said in a Dec. 20 press release. The bank, AS SEB banka, did not “fully” ensure its clients were not participating in money laundering activities, the press release said, and did not properly screen a customer for sanctions violations. After the violations, the bank “independently” improved its anti-money laundering compliance program, FCMC said. The agency also said the “risk level” of the violations were “low” and the bank followed through on the settlement agreement, which included two external audits, an improved “internal documentation” system and an improved information technology system to “monitor customer transactions.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 16-20 in case you missed them.
The European Union plans to finish rolling out its electronic licensing regime for dual-use exports by 2021, said Gabriela Stoica, a lead analyst of digital trade policy at the European Commission. The regime is being tested by four member states -- Latvia, Italy, Romania and Greece -- and the commission plans to add Belgium as a pilot tester soon, Stoica said. In the program’s next step, the commission plans to launch an e-licensing platform for steel and aluminum imports under the EU’s prior surveillance licensing regime. Stoica said those e-licenses will be “fully live with all member states” by Dec. 31.
Richard O'Neill was named partner at Neville Peterson, where he was previously an associate attorney, the law firm said in an emailed news release. O'Neill's work is focused on “all aspects of international trade and Customs law, including tariff classification, appraisement, country of origin and trade preference programs, Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs, Free Trade Agreements, export controls and trade remedies,” the firm said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a frequently asked question to address Congress’ inclusion of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (see 1912190075), according to a Dec. 20 notice. In FAQ 815, OFAC clarified the wind-down provisions in the NDAA, which specify that all parties involved in selling, leasing or providing vessels for Nord Stream 2 or Turkstream must “immediately cease construction-related activity.” But OFAC said it may extend “good-faith wind-down exceptions” to certain parties for the safety of the pipeline, the crews and to avoid environmental damage.
The State Department published an interim final rule that will revise the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to provide definitions for activities that are not exports, re-exports, retransfers or temporary imports, the agency said in a notice in the Federal Register. The activities include launching items into space, providing technical data to U.S. people within the U.S. or “within a single country abroad,” and moving defense items within the U.S.
In the Dec. 19-20 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation corrected an entry under its Venezuela sanctions regime, OFSI said in a Dec. 19 notice. The change amended identifying information for the listing for Tibisay Lucena Ramirez, who is still subject to an asset freeze, OFSI said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill Dec. 18 that would impose “wide-ranging sanctions” on Russian companies and people involved in Ukraine interference, human rights abuses and more, the committee said in a press release. The bill would also sanction Russian banks that support the government’s effort to undermine democracy, sanction investment in Russian liquefied natural gas projects, and impose sanctions on Russia’s cyber sector, sovereign debt, political figures and oligarchs. The bill would also sanction members of Russia’s shipbuilding sector that prohibit free navigation, and designate state-owned energy projects outside of Russia. The bill has strong bipartisan support and next heads to the Senate floor.
The State Department sanctioned Honduran congressman Oscar Ramon Najera due to “significant corruption,” according to a Dec. 20 press release. Najera allegedly benefited from the Honduran drug trafficking organization Los Cachiros, which was designated by the Treasury Department as a foreign narcotics trafficking group in 2013. The State Department also designated Najera’s son Oscar Roberto Najera Lopez.