The U.S. government’s enforcement actions last year show that it’s “very apparent” that export controls are a “major priority” for the Biden administration, and that will continue this year, risk intelligence firm Sayari said this month.
The U.S., the EU and other countries imposing export controls against Russia need to better harmonize their restrictions, including by developing a “centralized” list of controlled dual-use goods, treating license applications the same way across all jurisdictions and creating coalition-wide foreign direct product rule restrictions, researchers said this month. They also said enforcement authorities need to impose harsher fines against corporations involved in illegally sending goods to Russia to incentivize them to invest more heavily in compliance.
Ilya Kahn, a citizen of the U.S., Russia and Israel, was arrested on Jan. 17 for allegedly aiding a scheme to illicitly ship sensitive technology from the U.S. to a sanctioned Russian business, DOJ announced. Kahn was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
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 House Foreign Affairs Committee is renewing a push to pass a bipartisan bill that could expand the Treasury Department’s upcoming outbound investment prohibitions to cover more Chinese technology sectors and additional countries. But some lawmakers disagree on the best way to scope U.S. investment restrictions under the bill, arguing that they should be imposed through individual sanctions on specific entities rather than on whole technology industries.
The State Department gathered an undisclosed “group of countries” last week to “strategize” on ways to curb the supply of parts to Iranian drones, a department official said Jan. 17.
The U.K. on Jan. 15 corrected one entry under its Russia sanctions regime, one under its Belarus sanctions regime and two entries its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime.
The European Commission is urging anyone with information on Russia- or Belarus-related sanctions evasion to submit tips under its online EU sanctions whistleblower tool (see 2203080030). The online tool allows whistleblowers to submit reports anonymously, the bloc said in a Jan. 14 post on the social media platform X.
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The EU should require member states to report Russia-related sanctions enforcement data, audit their sanctions implementation efforts and step up enforcement against violators, a think tank network said in a set of 11 policy recommendations for 2024. The group said implementation and enforcement of Russia sanctions “will be critical” this year.