The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week renewed a Russia-related general license that authorizes certain transactions involving the Russian Federation's Central Bank, Wealth Fund and Ministry of Finance. General License No. 13K, which replaced 13J, now authorizes those transactions, including taxes, fees, or import duties, through 12:01 a.m. EST Jan. 8. The license was set to expire Oct. 9

The U.K. will remove the licensing consideration relating to the provision of professional and business services from U.K. parent companies and their U.K. subsidiaries to their Russian subsidiaries, the Export Control Joint Unit announced on Sept. 30. Starting Oct. 31, the provision of intra-corporate services will no longer stand as a licensing consideration "that is likely to be consistent with the aims of the sanctions regime." The agency said companies looking to provide intra-corporate services to their Russian subsidiaries must "explicitly demonstrate how the provision of any ongoing services aligns with the overarching purposes of the sanctions."

A senior U.S. Treasury Department official said the agency has made progress in addressing criticism that its sanctions are ineffective and difficult to comply with, pointing to recent guidance issued by Treasury and the increase in U.S. sanctions coordinated with close U.S. allies.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned an Iranian military official and six employees of an Iranian cybersecurity company for interfering in the 2024 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections.

The U.S. this week sanctioned Prophane Victor, a former member of Haiti’s parliament, for helping and arming gangs in Haiti that have committed human rights abuses, the Treasury Department said. It’s also designating Luckson Elan, leader of the Gran Grif gang, for his involvement in human rights abuses stemming from gang activity in Haiti’s Artibonite department. Brad Smith, Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the agency is “committed to holding accountable those who seek to leverage human rights abuses, violence, and corruption to achieve their political aims.”

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned more than a dozen companies, ships and Luay al-Mallah, brother of sanctioned “shipping Syrian magnate” Abdul Jalil Mallah, for helping to move Iranian crude oil and liquid petroleum gas to Syria and East Asia. After his brother was sanctioned, Luay al-Mallah helped run his family’s shipping business, OFAC said, which assists the shipping network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iran-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis (see 2408150008).

Lengthy license response times at the Office of Foreign Assets Controls are keeping many Iranian Americans from selling assets in Iran, especially if those assets are properties that have been gifts, Yazdanyar Law Offices said in a client alert this month.

The U.K. added two entities to the Russia sanctions regime on Sept. 26. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation sanctioned Ocean Speedstar Solutions OPC Pvt Ltd and White Fox Ship Management FZCO for operating in the Russian energy sector, a "sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia."

Switzerland on Sept. 23 amended the listings of six people and delisted eight others under its Russia sanctions regime. The updated or deleted listings include Russian corporate executives, business people, government officials and others. The country notably delisted former Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin, who successfully challenged his sanctions designation at the EU General Court (see 2403210019).

While a possible Kamala Harris administration would likely continue the current Biden administration’s approach of streamlining various denied-party lists through measured, phased-in updates, a Donald Trump-run government would probably pursue a “blunter approach” and spend less time on evaluating industry impact before putting in place sweeping new sanctions, the Rhodium Group said in a report last month. Although the report examines a hypothetical situation in which the U.S. adds companies from the Commerce Department’s Entity List to the Treasury Department’s sanctions list, it called that a “bazooka option” and said more likely scenarios include expanding the scope of the Treasury Department’s list of Chinese military companies subject to certain investment restrictions.