The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a U.S. citizen more than $1 million for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran by using foreign money services businesses to buy an Iranian hotel.

The U.S. government should create a joint interagency task force led by the national security adviser to develop better ways to prevent China from obtaining sensitive dual-use technology from the U.S. and its allies, a bipartisan congressionally mandated commission said Nov. 19.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. soon will be able to impose higher penalties, collect a broader range of information from parties involved in non-notified transactions, fine companies and issue subpoenas in a wider set of circumstances, and gain other expanded powers as part of a final rule expected to be formally issued by the Treasury Department in the coming days.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who is expected to ascend to the committee’s chairmanship when Republicans take control of the Senate in January (see 2411120060), said he views China as the panel’s biggest challenge.

The next Trump administration is likely to build on Biden’s outbound investment executive order and semiconductor export controls against China, researchers said last week, and could double down on sanctions against Iran and Venezuela in a return to the “maximum pressure” campaign Trump embraced during his first term.

A New York City-based electronics store was fined $5.4 million by CBP and ordered to forfeit more than $460,000 after it allegedly gave false export information to a freight forwarder and breached record-keeping rules, the Bureau of Industry and Security said last week.

A subsidiary of American insurance firm MetLife will pay $178,421 to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions by maintaining insurance policies for entities controlled by the Iranian government.

The Trump administration would be unwise to expand its export controls to cover older-generation semiconductors destined to China, but it could pursue new restrictions over less advanced versions of the tools used to make certain chips, technology policy analysts said in interviews, particularly if it’s willing to be more aggressive than the Biden administration in talks with the Dutch and Japanese.

Foreign investment lawyers aren’t expecting a big change in how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. operates under a second Trump administration, although a new round of tariffs against China and the continued easing of export restrictions among close U.S. allies could change the investment landscape and the number of filings submitted to CFIUS.

The EU and the U.S. should tighten sanctions against both China and Russia, the EU’s next top foreign affairs official said, saying the two sides need to work closely to break up an emerging alliance between Moscow and Beijing.