Dali Bagrou and his company World Mining and Oil Supply pleaded guilty on Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to violating the Export Control Reform Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said in a press release. The scheme started when a Russian state-owned enterprise began working with Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin, general director of Russia-based energy company KS Engineering, to buy a power turbine from a U.S.-based manufacturer for around $17.3 million, the release said.
The World Bank recently published a new Global Suspension & Debarment Directory, detailing how 23 governments and jurisdictions use exclusion frameworks to penalize suppliers from procurement eligibility based on fraud, corruption, sanctions breaches or other violations of that country’s laws. The directory includes sections on the U.S., China, Canada, Germany, Australia and others.
The European Union added eight more names to its Nicaraguan sanctions regime Aug. 2, bringing the total number of sanctions individuals to 14. The eight, including Vice President Rosario Murillo, were added for undermining democracy or the rule of law. "The political situation in Nicaragua has further deteriorated in recent months," a European Council news release said. "The political use of the judicial system, the exclusion of candidates from the elections and the arbitrary delisting of opposition parties are contrary to basic democratic principles and constitute a serious violation of the rights of the Nicaraguan people. These actions further undermine the credibility of an electoral process, already hampered by an electoral reform that fell short of the recommendations of the OAS and EU Electoral Observation Missions." The other seven listed individuals are Gustavo Porras Cortes, Juan Valle Valle, Ana Guido Ochoa, Fidel Dominguez Alvarez, Alba Ramos Vanegas, Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo and Bayardo Arce Castano. The sanctions amount to an asset freeze and a travel ban.
The European Council removed the former deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Sayed Shamsuddin Borborudi, from its Iran sanctions list and Libyan Gen. Khaled Tohami from its Libyan sanctions regime July 29. The council delisted both individuals following judgments from the European Union General Court to delete the listings.
A rise in U.S. secondary sanctions is increasingly leading to issues in Europe about how companies perform global sanctions compliance while simultaneously avoiding violating the European Union’s blocking regulations, trade lawyers said. Until the U.S. changes its sanctions approach -- which is possible under the Biden administration -- those disputes are expected to continue rising, the lawyers said.
The European Council adopted a framework on July 30 for targeted sanctions against Lebanese individuals and entities responsible for “undermining democracy or the rule of law in Lebanon.” Actions that may warrant sanctions include obstructing the democratic political process through “hampering the formation of a government” or the holding of elections, undermining plans by Lebanese authorities to improve accountability and proper governance and “serious financial misconduct,” a press release said. The sanctions will include a travel ban and an asset freeze for individuals, and an asset freeze for entities.
The State Department is seeking public comments on six Directorate of Defense Trade Controls information collections, the agency said in a noticed released July 30. The collections pertain to export license applications for unclassified and classified technical data and defense articles as well as nontransfer and use certificates. Comments are due Oct. 1.
A federal court ordered an oil tanker to be forfeited to the U.S. after it helped illegally ship oil to North Korea in violation of U.S. and United Nations sanctions, the Justice Department said July 30. The agency also said sanctions evasion charges are pending against Kwek Kee Sen, a Singaporean national and the owner of the ship, who remains at large.
Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the Biden administration’s recent sanctions against the Cuban government and said he believes more are coming. Menendez, D-N.J., said the U.S. should impose more sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act for human rights violations, similar to the Treasury Department’s July 22 designations of Cuba’s defense minister and a defense agency (see 2107220055). “Secretary [Antony] Blinken has made clear the Administration will continue holding human rights abusers accountable,” Menendez said July 28. “I urge the Administration to consider additional Global Magnitsky designations.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Cuban police officials and a police agency for human rights violations stemming from the government’s recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protestors, according to a July 30 news release. The designations target the Policia Nacional Revolucionaria and Director Oscar Alejandro Callejas Valcarce and Deputy Director Eddy Manuel Sierra Arias.