Behrouz Mokhtari of McLean, Virginia, and Tehran pleaded guilty Jan. 9 to two conspiracies to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran "by engaging in business activities on behalf of Iranian entities" without getting a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ announced Jan. 9. Mokhtari will forfeit money, property and assets obtained from the schemes, including a Campbell, California, home, and a money judgment of over $2.8 million, DOJ said. The defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison for each of the two conspiracy counts.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned an Iraqi airline, its CEO and others with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. The agency said they have helped to deliver shipments to the IRGC-QF or have helped launder money and support Kata’ib Hizballah, an IRGC-QF militia in Iraq.
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. 13H, which replaced 13G, now authorizes those transactions, including taxes, fees, or import duties, through 12:01 a.m. EDT April 17. The license was set to expire Jan. 31.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned United Arab Emirates-based shipping company Hennesea Holdings Limited for violating the price cap on Russian oil. OFAC also added 17 previously undesignated vessels owned by Hennesea to its Specially Designated Nationals List and redesignated one vessel, the HS Atlantica, which the agency first sanctioned in December for illegally moving Russian oil (see 2312010023).
The U.S. this week announced plans to designate the Yemen-based Houthis as a terrorist organization, which will subject them to strict financial sanctions that will restrict their access to funding and financial markets, the White House said Jan. 17. The designation comes after months of Houthi-led attacks on commercial ships transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (see 2401030065 and 2401050066), which National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said “fit the textbook definition of terrorism.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control Jan. 16 again extended a general license that continues to delay an exemption that would authorize certain transactions related to Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. General License 5N, which replaced GL 5M, now authorizes certain transactions with PdVSA involving an 8.5% bond on or after April 16. The previous license was set to allow those transactions to occur on or after Jan. 18.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Jan. 2 amended a Russia-related general license to reflect the name change of VTB Bank (Europe) SE to OWH SE. The license, issued in March 2022, authorizes certain transactions involving Russia-based VTB Capital and its subsidiaries (see 2203020019).
The Bureau of Industry and Security published a new set of frequently asked questions for its recently updated semiconductor export controls (see 2310170055), offering guidance on the agency’s new export notification requirement, its controls on U.S. persons activities, the scope of its end-use controls, direction for electronic export information filers and more. The FAQs also give input on several export scenarios that may require a license and preview at least one export control revision that BIS plans to make.