A new White House memo on President Donald Trump’s “America-first investment policy” previews efforts to expand both inbound and outbound foreign investment restrictions, tamp down on the use of mitigation agreements, fast-track investment deals from certain allies and more.
John Eisenberg, former legal adviser to the National Security Council who served during the first Trump administration, is President Donald Trump's pick to lead DOJ’s National Security Division, DOJ announced last week. Eisenberg also previously held several roles within DOJ, including in the office of the deputy attorney general. If confirmed, Eisenberg will oversee the division that prosecutes various export control, sanctions, foreign investment and other national security-related violations.
A federal court in Kentucky found that Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations licensing requirements for technical data don't violate the First Amendment as a restriction on free speech. Judge David Hale of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky said the licensing requirements "advance important government interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech" and don't burden "substantially more speech than necessary to further those interests" (United States v. Pascoe, W.D. Ky. # 3:22-88).
Gal Haimovich, an Israeli national and owner of a freight forwarding company, was sentenced last week to two years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in September as part of a scheme to illegally ship aircraft parts and avionics from U.S. manufacturers and suppliers to Russia (see 2409110018). DOJ said Haimovich -- who admitted to deceiving U.S. companies about the destination of the goods, some of which were sent to a sanctioned Russian airline Siberian Airlines (see 2412090012 -- also forfeited $2,024,435.44 to the U.S. government.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., plans to reintroduce a bill that would require the administration to develop a strategy to use sanctions and other tools to protect civilians from Sudan’s civil war, a spokesperson said Feb. 21.
A European Parliament report published this month analyzes how the EU is approaching lifting sanctions against Syria after the December overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
The Australian Sanctions Office will be working over the coming months to improve its PAX Portal, which is used to apply for sanctions permits and send “secure” sanctions-related inquiries to the government, the office said in a Feb. 21 email to industry. The improvements will “enhance user experience and overall functionality,” Australia said, including by “improving the process to apply for a sanctions permit.” PAX users will see some visual changes to the portal, along with “minor bug fixes,” the email said, and the “underlying functionality of PAX will be largely the same as it is now.” Australia is expecting some larger changes involving the portal’s functionality to be released around April.
The U.S. and 10 of its close allies held the first meeting last week of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) Steering Committee, the group formed last year to report on North Korea-related sanctions violations and evasion. The committee, which also includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the U.K., was established after Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council proposal that would have extended the “panel of experts” that had been monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea (see 2410170003).
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s ongoing export control policy review is likely to result in an initial set of recommendations involving advanced technology exported to China, Akin Gump said last week.
Many opportunities exist to increase the effectiveness of U.S. financial sanctions, researchers said during a Feb. 20 hearing of the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.