The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned the Guatemala-based Los Pochos Drug Trafficking Organization, three of its members and four affiliated companies for their involvement in trafficking cocaine to the U.S.
The U.S. and U.K. this week announced coordinated designations against Iran and the Yemen-based Houthis for their roles in carrying out attacks on commercial cargo ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Hong Kong-registered Kohana Company Limited and Marshall Islands-registered Iridescent Co Ltd. for operating a vessel shipping more than $100 million worth of Iranian commodities to China. The Panama-flagged Kohana is on its way to China, where it plans to offload the cargo to Chinese businesses, OFAC said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently released a fact sheet to mark the one-year anniversary of its Disruptive Technology Strike Force, the group formed with DOJ to pool resources toward investigations and prosecutions of high-priority export control cases. In the last year, the group has charged 14 cases involving alleged sanctions, export control violations or illegal transfers, issued temporary denial orders against 29 entities and helped “numerous parties” be placed on the Entity List and the Specially Designated Nationals List. It also said it recently added enforcement teams in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Western District of Texas, and the Southern District of Georgia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned Russian state-owned shipping company and fleet operator Joint Stock Company Sovcomflot along with 14 of its crude oil tankers. Deputy Treasury Secretary said the designation will deal a “huge blow” to Russia’s shadow fleet operations (see 2303230010), which it uses to try to evade the global price cap on Russian oil.
The U.S. announced a new set of sweeping Russia-related export controls and sanctions last week to mark the two-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and to respond to Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny's death in prison. The measures include nearly 100 additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, more than 500 sanctions designations by the Treasury and State departments and new government guidance, including a new business advisory to warn companies about Russia-related compliance risks.
The U.S. announced a new set of sweeping Russia-related export controls and sanctions this week to mark the two-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and to respond to Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny's death in prison. The measures include nearly 100 additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and more than 500 sanctions designations by the Treasury and State departments in what the U.S. said is its largest single tranche of designations since Russia began the war in 2022.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two Russian nationals for their ties to LockBit, a Russia-based ransomware group. The designations target Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev, a LockBit affiliate and leader of the National Hazard Society, a LockBit affiliate sub-group; and Artur Sungatov, a Lockbit ransomware group affiliate who has “actively engaged in LockBit ransomware attacks,” OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Feb. 16 issued a new guidance document on U.S. sanctions against Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, to coincide with sanctions taking effect on the Yemeni group that same day pursuant to its formal addition to the Specially Designated Nationals list.
Industry lawyers and advisers see the Bureau of Industry and Security's revamped voluntary disclosure policies as a positive set of moves that could reduce compliance burdens on exporters and encourage more companies to come forward with tips about their competitors. But at least one former government official said corporations should remain skeptical about the changes until BIS offers more clarity about how it will implement them in practice.