Property management companies, real estate agents and other firms in the property services industry are underreporting suspected sanctions violations to the U.K. government, a U.K. sanctions agency said last week. The country’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said it suspects those firms are illegally helping sanctioned Russians buy or sell property, adding that Russians are likely being aided by small-scale property service firms or “sole practitioners with high-risk appetites” and long-standing relationships with sanctioned people.
A British court last week sentenced two Russians, including one former senior trade official, to prison for violating U.K. sanctions against Russia. The case marks the first conviction in the U.K. for a breach of sanctions under its Russia Sanctions Regulations, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
John Hurley, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial crimes (see 2502120058), said April 10 that he wants to "understand better how we can tighten the focus” on Chinese companies that steal U.S. innovations.
Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced April 9 that they are introducing a bill designed to strengthen sanctions enforcement against Russia’s “ghost fleet” of oil-carrying ships.
The U.K. this week amended four entries under its domestic counterterrorism sanctions list to make them subject to "director disqualification" sanctions. These sanctions block them from directly or indirectly being a director of a U.K. company. The people are Mohammed Fawaz Khaled, Aozma Sultana, Nazem Ahmad and Mustafa Ayash.
The U.K. added four Georgian officials to its global human rights sanctions regime April 10. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation sanctioned Shalva Bedoidze, Georgia's first deputy minister of internal affairs; Giorgi Gabitashvili, general prosecutor; Karlo Katsitadze, head of the special investigatory service; and Mirza Kezevadze, deputy chief of the special task department.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned United Arab Emirates-based Indian national Jugwinder Singh Brar for owning multiple shipping companies that operate a fleet of vessels helping Iran move sanctioned goods. OFAC designated his UAE-based companies Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC, along with India-based companies Global Tankers Private Limited and B and P Solutions Private Limited, and more than 30 vessels with ties to the companies or Brar.
President Donald Trump this week ordered his administration to reduce regulatory restrictions around sales of weapons and other military items to U.S. partners, saying he wants to speed up foreign military sales and make the process more “transparent.”
House Select Committee on China ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and 10 other committee Democrats urged the Commerce Department April 9 to reconsider its plans to pull back from traditional export control dialogues with allies, including the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC).
Landon Heid, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary of commerce for export administration (see 2502120020), said April 10 that he wants the Bureau of Industry and Security to wage a “continuous battle every single day” to prevent China from obtaining restricted U.S. technology.