The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published two sets of previously issued general licenses in the Federal Register, including licenses under its Burma Sanctions Regulations, Syria Sanctions Regulations, Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations and Venezuela Sanctions Regulations. The full texts of the licenses are available in the notices.
President Joe Biden this week renewed a national emergency authorizing certain sanctions related to hostage-takers and those who wrongfully detain U.S. nationals abroad. The sanctions were renewed for another year from July 19. The Treasury Department earlier this week issued rules implementing the Hostages and Wrongful Detention Sanctions Regulations, which were ordered by the president in an executive order last year (see 2307100009 and 2207190045).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week deleted a range of entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List that were originally sanctioned for counter-narcotics reasons. The entries include people and entities based in Colombia. The agency didn’t release more information.
A new report by the Government Accountability Office examines the “illicit financial flows” supporting the Venezuelan government and U.S. efforts to disrupt those transactions, including through sanctions. Although U.S. agencies have “provided assistance to partner countries in the region to build their capacity to disrupt criminal activity” involving Venezuela, Treasury Department officials told the GAO that “the volume of illicit financial flows is overwhelming for many partners in the region.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 10 people and one company involved in illegal Mexican drug trafficking, including precursor chemicals used in fentanyl. Those designated have ties to Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, OFAC said, and the measures follow a series of similar sanctions related to the group in recent months (see 2305090022, 2304140051 and 2301300010).
President Joe Biden this week renewed a national emergency authorizing certain sanctions related to Hong Kong. The White House said "recent actions taken by the People’s Republic of China to fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy" continue to threaten U.S. national security. The sanctions were renewed for another year from July 14.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on July 11 updated the Specially Designated Nationals List entry for Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov, a Wagner Group official who has helped the sanctioned Russian private military company in weapons deals, mining activities and more. OFAC sanctioned Ivanov in June (see 2306270056).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Serbian official Aleksandar Vulin, who has been “implicated” in transnational organized crime, illegal drug operations and “misuse of public office.” Vulin, director of Serbia’s Security Information Agency, worked with U.S.-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer Slobodan Tesic by helping him move illegal arms shipments across the country’s border, and has also used his position to support Russia and give the country “a platform to further its influence in the region.”
American universities and research labs should make sure they’re screening against a new Defense Department list of Chinese, Russian and Iranian institutions that have “elevated risks,” Crowell & Mooring said in a July 11 client alert. The list, published by DOD June 30, includes more than 45 entities that “have been confirmed as engaging in problematic activity,” including behavior that increases the risk that DOD-funded research could be “misappropriated to the detriment of national or economic security.”
Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo met with EU officials and industry executives this week to discuss Russia sanctions and efforts to “prevent sanctions evasion,” the agency said. Along with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, and Secretary-General Stefano Sannino, Adeyemo also met with clean energy industry officials in Belgium. He also discussed evasion of Russian sanctions with ambassadors to the EU from Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.