Several companies recently disclosed their filings with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. or updated the status of their ongoing CFIUS reviews. Transactions involve Chinese technology companies, an agricultural technology business and a workplace learning technology provider.

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fined one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange companies $100 million for failing to maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program, which violated the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a recent penalty notice. The violations also exposed other BitMEX compliance issues, including its deficient sanctions screening.

The Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a fact sheet this week highlighting the various exemptions and authorizations available for companies, people and exporters providing telecommunications goods and services to Cuba. The five-page guidance covers OFAC general licenses and BIS license exceptions and comes as the Biden administration tries to increase sanctions pressure on the Cuban government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in recent weeks (see 2107300063).

The Biden administration will maintain a Trump-era policy that loosened export restrictions on certain unmanned drones, a decision that drew applause from the aerospace defense industry last year but sparked concern from some lawmakers.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Aug. 2-6 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she supports adding China’s anti-foreign sanctions law to Hong Kong’s constitution, a move that would potentially add more challenges for global companies trying to navigate U.S. sanctions compliance and China’s business environment.

More than 80 agricultural trade groups are endorsing a bipartisan House bill they say would address unreasonable detention and demurrage practices and ocean carriers’ refusal to carry U.S. exports in favor of imports. The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021, introduced Aug. 10 by Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., aims to support the “growth” of exporters by holding carriers accountable for their unfair fees and declined export bookings, according to a fact sheet from the Agriculture Transportation Coalition.

President Joe Biden issued a new executive order to expand existing U.S. sanctions authorities against Belarus and issued a host of new designations targeting the country’s government for last year’s “fraudulent” presidential elections. The Aug. 9 order authorizes sanctions against a broad range of government officials, oligarchs, entities and private companies, including those operating in Belarus’ defense, energy, security, potassium chloride, transportation and construction sectors. Sanctions are also authorized against people or entities with links to “public corruption” in Belarus or transactions deemed to be “deceptive or structured” to evade U.S. sanctions on behalf of the Belarusian government.

A California electronics company was fined $6.6 million by the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls after it illegally exported technical data and software to more than 15 countries, including China, DDTC said Aug. 9. DDTC said Keysight Technologies, which makes electronic test and measurement equipment and software, committed 24 violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including unauthorized exports while the companies still had an outstanding commodity jurisdiction request pending with the State Department.

The United Kingdom's Economic Secretary to the Treasury upheld an Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation penalty on TransferGo Limited for violating the U.K.'s sanctions in response to the annexation of Crimea by Russia. TransferGo, a money transfer company, was penalized for allowing payments to accounts at the sanctioned Russian National Commercial Bank between March 2018 and December 2019. The penalty of over $69,000 was sustained following a June review of the Policing and Crime Act 2017.