Valery Kosmachov was extradited from Estonia to face federal charges in the U.S. related to a "scheme to illegally procure sophisticated electronic components" and smuggle them to Russia, the Department of Justice said in a March 20 news release. The indictment was filed in September 2017 but was only unsealed on March 20, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Kosmachov was arrested in September 2018 and extradited to the U.S. on March 14, the DOJ said.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Specially Designated Nationals List while also issuing an updated guide on “addressing North Korea’s illicit shipping practices,” which includes risk mitigation measures and a summary of penalties for violators, according to a March 21 notice. The changes made to OFAC’s SDN list include the additions of three individuals associated with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an update to the SDN listing for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the addition of two Chinese entities that violated North Korean sanctions regulations. The two Chinese entities are Dalian Haibo International Freight Co. and Liaoning Danxing International Forwarding Co., according to the notice.
Mexico is preparing an overhaul of its customs procedures and port infrastructure, according to recent reports. At an event at the Port of Manzanillo, Mexican General Administrator of Customs Ricardo Peralta Saucedo said he is preparing a new National Customs Strategy for presentation to the Mexican Cabinet and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that will set forth changes to customs operations to facilitate trade, said a March 19 report in the Mexican logistics news site T21. Other officials at the event also announced port modernization initiatives.
The United Kingdom "will now not leave on time with a deal on 29 March," U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said in a March 20 statement, expressing "great personal regret" for a requested Brexit delay despite formal approval not having yet been granted by the European Union for an extension.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 11-15 in case they were missed.
A no-deal Brexit on March 30 is still the current default outcome unless the United Kingdom can convince European Union leaders it has good reason for extending the deadline, said Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator during a March 19 press conference. “The House of Parliament voted against the withdrawal agreement” negotiated between the EU and the U.K. “and against a no-deal scenario,” he said. “But voting against no deal does not prevent it from happening. Every one should now finalize all preparations for a no-deal scenario,” he said.
India is considering a proposal that would restrict the sharing of sensitive e-commerce data while treating the data as a “national asset,” the government said in a draft of its “national e-commerce policy.” The draft, released Feb. 24, has been deemed “highly protectionist,” according to a report on Indian legal news portal Live Law, and stakeholders are concerned about whether the policy actually can be implemented and enforced. If the proposal is implemented, data flow involved in e-commerce “cannot be made available to a foreign government without the prior permission of Indian authorities,” the report said.
Oleg Deripaska, a Russian businessman who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, sued the Treasury Department last week, alleging its sanctions rely on “unsubstantiated” allegations and have led to the “utter devastation” of his “wealth, reputation, and economic livelihood,” according to court documents. The suit, filed March 15, requests that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia order Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to remove the sanctions. It names Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Department OFAC Director Andrea Gacki, the Treasury Department and OFAC as defendants.
The U.S., the European Union and Canada announced additional Russian sanctions stemming from Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to media reports and a March 15 announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added six people and eight entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List, OFAC said in a notice, while Canada reportedly imposed sanctions on 114 people and 15 entities and the EU targeted eight security service officials and military commanders. Individuals or companies who trade with any of the blocked people or entities may be penalized under U.S. sanctions.
The United Kingdom Parliament voted on March 14 to seek a delay of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union. The EU still has to approve the extension of Article 50, and the time frame of the departure is still to be determined, though it may be lengthy if the U.K. does not adopt the deal it negotiated with the EU, as appears likely after it failed twice in the U.K. Parliament in recent months.