The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in a pair of Aug. 8 notices added 19 entries to its Russia sanctions regime and six entries to its Belarus restrictions regime. The Russia sanctions additions include 10 people and nine entities, most relating to Iran's support for the Russian military's war in Ukraine. Many of the people designated were employees or executives at one of the listed companies, Paravar Pars Co., an aerospace research and engineering firm in Iran.
Jacob Kopnick
Jacob Kopnick, Associate Editor, is a reporter for Trade Law Daily and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and International Trade Today. He joined the Warren Communications News team in early 2021 covering a wide range of topics including trade-related court cases and export issues in Europe and Asia. Jacob's background is in trade policy, having spent time with both CSIS and USTR researching international trade and its complexities. Jacob is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Public Policy.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York set a plea proceeding for former FBI agent Charles McGonigal in a case charging him with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia. Judge Jennifer Rearden set the Aug. 15 proceeding on word that McGonigal "may wish to enter" a guilty plea (U.S. v. Charles McGonigal, S.D.N.Y. # 23-00016).
A former oil and commodities trader at Vitol Inc., Javier Aguilar Morales, was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing Mexican officials to obtain and retain business for Vitol. According to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Aug. 3, Aguilar violated the FCPA via bribery and money laundering from 2017 to 2020 to keep business for Vitol with the Mexican state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and its subsidiary, PEMEX Procurement International (United States v. Javier Aguilar, S.D. Tex. #4:23-00335).
Japan expanded its export ban on Russia to cover a wider array of goods, including luxury cars, electric vehicles and yachts, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the move was made to "contribute to international efforts" to resolve the war in Ukraine and will take effect Aug. 9.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation issued a general license allowing payments and other permitted activities to take place related to insolvency proceedings for two Irish wings of Russian leasing firm GTLK. The two companies are GTLK Europe Designated Activity Co. and GTLK Europe Capital Designated Activity Co. Under the license, any party, including the GTLK companies or their subsidiaries, along with involved practitioners, may "make, receive or process any payments" in connection with the insolvency proceedings. The license expires at the end of the day July 31, 2025.
Investors in Mississippi's public employees' retirement system sued Seagate Technology Holdings for deceiving its investors and causing them to buy Seagate stock at "artificially inflated prices" related to its conduct in illegally exporting hard disk drives to China. (Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi v. Seagate Technology Holdings, N.D. Cal. # 3:23-03711).
The Dominican Republic violated its World Trade Organization commitments under the Anti-Dumping Agreement when imposing duties on corrugated steel bars from Costa Rica, a World Trade Organization dispute panel said in a July 27 report. The panel said the Dominican Republic's Regulatory Commission on Unfair Trade Practices and Safeguard Measures "failed to comply with the requirement" to make the comparison between the export price and normal value with sales made at "nearly as possible the same time."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in a July opinion, reversed a California district court's decision acquitting Yi-Chi Shih, an employee at China-based firm Chengdu RML, of conspiracy to violate export control laws via his export of semiconductors to China. Judges Andrew Hurwitz and Ryan Nelson said "a rational factfinder could find that the exported [monolithic microwave integrated circuits] were not exempt from the [Export Administration Regulations] as fundamental research."
The U.K. High Court of Justice Administrative Court recently dismissed an application from Russian businessman Sergei Naumenko and companies Dalston Projects and Prism Maritime, legal owners of the Phi superyacht, seeking to regain control of the vessel. The British secretary of state for transport in March 2022 seized the yacht under its Russia sanctions regime.
The Federal Reserve Board on July 19 fined Deutsche Bank, its New York branch and other U.S. affiliates $186 million for violating two consent orders with the bank dealing with sanctions compliance and anti-money laundering controls. The board said Deutsche Bank "made insufficient remedial progress" under the two orders and had insufficient "anti-money laundering internal controls and governance processes" stemming from its past relationship with the bank's Estonian branch.