The Bureau of Industry and Security and its technical advisory committees should do more public outreach to make sure companies are aware of important export control updates sometimes buried in Federal Register notices, a BIS committee heard last week. That outreach is especially critical for companies working with industrial chemical processing equipment, a committee member and industry lawyer said, which has commercial uses but is increasingly drawing BIS scrutiny for its military capabilities, including in chemical weapons.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China asked five large semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) firms Nov. 7 to provide data about their China sales, saying the information would help lawmakers better understand the “flow of SME” to the Asian country and its contribution to China’s “rapid buildout of its semiconductor manufacturing industrial base.”
U.S.-based business owner Ilya Kahn pleaded guilty Nov. 7 to conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act after he illegally shipped sensitive technology, including semiconductors, from the U.S. to Russia (see 2401180047), DOJ said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed a temporary denial order on Russia's Rossiya Airlines, saying the company has continued to illegally operate planes in violation of U.S. export controls, including on flights between Russia and China and Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The agency renewed the denial order for one year from Nov. 5. BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in May 2022 (see 2205200008) and has renewed the order multiple times. The order blocks Rossiya from participating in transactions subject to the Export Administration Regulations.
The U.K. on Nov. 7 sanctioned Denis Sergeev, a senior officer in the Russian Military Intelligence Service, for his ties to Russia's use of chemical weapons. The U.K.'s said Sergeev was involved in the attempted 2018 Novichok nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, England, of a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies.
Asia-based companies should make sure they’re doing enough due diligence to take into account heightened Western focus on Russia-related sanctions evasion, Ropes and Gray said in a Nov. 5 client alert, particularly because of their “geographical proximity” to Russia. The firm pointed to guidance on sanctions evasion recently released by the Group of 7 nations (see 2409250004), adding that Asian companies “are at higher risk for diversion as Russia is ever more reliant on complex transnational structures to circumvent sanctions and procure critical technology and manufacturing components” for its weapons.
The possible North Korean deployment of troops to Russia, as well as Russia’s transfer of missile technology to North Korea, would violate multiple U.N. sanctions resolutions and shouldn’t be allowed, the U.S. and several allies said in a Nov. 6 joint statement. They said they have “grave concerns” about Russia’s use of North Korean troops against Ukraine and are “deeply concerned” about potential shipments of nuclear or ballistic missile-related technology from Russia to North Korea.
A Virginia-based freight consolidation and forwarding business and two of its executives were charged with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act after they allegedly exported goods and technology to Russia by transshipping them through Turkey, Finland and Kazakhstan, DOJ announced Nov. 4.
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Maros Sefcovic of Slovakia, the EU’s candidate for trade and economic security commissioner, said this week he would “double down” on defending European industry against “increasingly widespread” unfair practices.