Christopher Skinner, former partner at Williams Mullen, has joined ArentFox as a partner in its international trade and investment practice, the firm announced. Skinner's practice will cover export controls and sanctions compliance as well as customs and import regulations.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected an argument from a Chinese engineering professor who said his illegal export shouldn't have been subject to national security controls, which made the export subject to a higher base offense (U.S. v. Yi-Chi Shih, 9th Cir. # 23-3718).
The U.K. on Oct. 28 designated three entities and three people that it said are working in Russia's information, communications and digital technologies sector, including Moscow-based firms Structura, the Social Design Agency and Ano Dialog. The U.K. also sanctioned Ilya Andreevich Gambashidze, director of Structura and the Social Design Agency; Andrey Naumovich Perla, program director of the Social Design Agency; and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tupikin, the general director of Structura.
Florida resident Yuksel Senbol was sentenced on Oct. 24 to 15 months in prison for violating the Export Control Reform Act and Arms Export Control Act, among other things, DOJ announced. Senbol, who pleaded guilty in May (see 2405080060), "knowingly facilitated the illegal export" of export-controlled drawings of key U.S. military technology and helped her co-conspirators fraudulently procure contracts to supply the Defense Department with "critical military components," DOJ said. She also agreed to forfeit $275,430.90.
The EU General Court on Oct. 23 annuled the sanctions listing of Vladimir Gheorghe Plahotniuc a former member of Moldova's Parliament, who was listed for allegedly committing bank fraud and bribing the former president of Moldova in exchange for political favors.
Chinese lidar company Hesai Technology will meet with the U.S. to discuss next steps in the company's lawsuit against its designation as a Chinese military company after the Pentagon removed the firm from its list of companies with ties to China's military but immediately relisted it (see 2410230018). DOD relisted the company "based on the latest information available" (Hesai Technology Co. v. U.S. Department of Defense, D.D.C. # 24-01381).
Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank is not shielded from "common-law foreign sovereign immunity" in the U.S. government's suit against the bank for sanctions evasion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said earlier this week, ruling that the U.S. may prosecute it on charges that it helped Iran evade U.S. sanctions (United States v. Turkiye Halk Bankasi, 2nd Cir. # 20-3499).
An indictment was unsealed on Oct. 22 charging Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps brigadier general Ruhollah Bazghandi and members of his network with sanctions evasion, among other charges, in their efforts to murder a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York City, DOJ announced.
Chinese drone-maker DJI Technology Co. is challenging the Pentagon's designation of the firm as a Chinese military company, saying the agency applied the "wrong legal standard," mixed up individuals "with common Chinese names" and relied on "stale alleged facts and attenuated connections that fall short of demonstrating" the company is connected to the Chinese military (SZ DJI Technology Co. v. U.S., D.D.C. # 24-02970).
The U.S. on Oct. 15 urged the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to dismiss a lawsuit from nonprofit advocacy group Texas for Israel and its members challenging the constitutionality of the Biden administration's West Bank-related sanctions authority.