The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned one person, two entities and three aircraft with ties to Russia, according to a Jan. 11 update to its Specially Designated Nationals List. The designations target Vladimir Vladimirovich Mikheychik, Ashuluk Firing Range, and Vladimirovka Advanced Weapons and Research Complex. OFAC also sanctioned aircraft with tail numbers RF-78757, RF-82011 and RF-86898.
A nonprofit is asking the Treasury Department to sanction seven Chinese companies after its reporting revealed their alleged ties to forced labor in China’s seafood industry (see 2310100030). The Outlaw Ocean Project, a Washington-based investigative journalism non-profit, said it submitted a petition to Treasury calling for human rights sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against the seven companies and their affiliates, who are “complicit in serious human rights abuses” against Xinjiang workers.
The U.N. Security Council last week amended several existing sanctions entries that were designated for their links to terrorism or North Korea. The changes revise identifying information for five people and two entities designated under the ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida Sanctions List and two entities with ties to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned one person and three entities involved in helping Iran finance the Houthis, the political and military group in Yemen that has launched attacks in recent weeks on cargo vessels in the Red Sea.
China sanctioned American compliance risk advisory firm Kharon, a Kharon researcher and a researcher at the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in reaction to recent U.S. sanctions announced on Human Rights Day earlier this month (see 2312080026).
The Office of Foreign Asset Control’s $1.2 million settlement with San Francisco-based currency exchange CoinList Markets this month shows U.S. sanctions enforcement of the cryptocurrency industry continues to be a “focus” for OFAC, Sheppard Mullin said in a December client alert. The firm said the case highlights the importance of virtual currency exchanges investing in compliance controls, especially if they offer financial services to customers around the world.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published previously issued General License 78 under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The license authorizes certain safety- and health-related transactions with sanctioned people and ships that were designated Dec. 1 (see 2312010023). The notice includes the license's full text.
The U.S., the EU and other nations this week condemned North Korea’s Dec. 17 ballistic missile launch and called for U.N. member countries to fully implement sanctions against the country that prohibit it from importing weapons and ammunition.
The Biden administration has not made a decision yet on whether to repeal the sanctions relief it granted Venezuela in October, a senior administration official said during a Dec. 20 call with reporters. “The sanctions relief has not shifted,” the official said, adding that the U.S. won't reimpose the sanctions as long as “progress towards competitive elections” continues.
A former State Department official who advised on sanctions and money laundering, who also is a co-founder of Sayari Labs, a financial intelligence and commercial data provider, said that Hudson Institute will produce a paper on creating a broad sanctions program for China, complete with the kind of language that would allow it to be executive-order ready.