The U.K. issued a new Russian sanctions general license allowing non-designated parties who have made investments through sanctioned brokers to "transfer their funds to a non-designated broker." The license applies when the only sanctioned party involved is the broker. Under the license, an "Asset Holding Institution" can take steps to transfer any funds held by a central securities depository that the asset-holding institution "reasonably considers" are "investment assets of that" non-sanctioned account holder and relate to investment made by the non-sanctioned account holder with the sanctioned broker before it became sanctioned.
Seth Bailey, the State Department’s director for Korean and Mongolian Affairs, briefed U.N. member states last week on the first report of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, the group formed last year by the U.S. and 10 of its close allies to report on North Korea-related sanctions evasion (see 2502210005 and 2506050046). Bailey outlined “evidence” of North Korean arms and materiel transfers to Russia, Russian transfers of military technology to North Korea, and Russian training of North Korean troops in Russia, the State Department said. Bailey added that the monitoring team plans to continue publishing reports on North Korea’s “sanctions violations across a range of topics.”
The U.K. on July 18 added to its Russia and cyber sanctions regimes, listing three people and one entity under the Russia list and 18 individuals and one entity under the cyber list.
The Council of the European Union on July 18 adopted a fourth sanctions package against Sudan in response to the Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The designations target Alkhaleej Bank, Red Rock Mining Company, SAF military commander Abu Aqla Mohamed Kaikal and RSF military field commander Hussein Barsham. The council said Alkhaleej Bank is "largely owned by companies linked to family members of RMS Commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo" and is central to financing RSF operations. The Red Rock Mining Company is involved in facilitating production of weapons and vehicles for the SAF, the council said.
Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, a Russian public research university, has launched a two-year master's program focused on mitigating and navigating international sanctions, the Moscow Times reported. The program is described as the first of its kind in Russia, and it aims to train students about how to "identify and assess the risks of sanctions and other measures imposed by supervisory authorities on companies." The program, which is reportedly not funded by the Russian government, costs about 490,000 rubles, or $6,260, annually, with 20 seats reserved for Russian citizens and two for international students.
The State Department is maintaining the status of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba as a foreign terrorist organization and is adding several aliases to both its FTO designation and its Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation, the agency said in notices released this week. The new aliases are: The Resistance Front, TRF, Kashmir Resistance Front and Kashmir Resistance. The designations subject the group to strict sanctions, financial reporting requirements and other restrictions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six key leaders and affiliates of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuela-based criminal group that the U.S. labeled a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and Foreign Terrorist Organization in February (see 2502200019 and 2502200019). The designations target Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as Nino Guerrero, the head of Tren de Aragua, along with co-founder Yohan Jose Romero and senior officials Josue Angel Santana Pena, Wilmer Jose Perez Castillo and Felix Anner Castillo Rondon. OFAC also sanctioned Guerrero Flores' wife, Wendy Marbelys Rios Gomez, for her ties to money laundering, terrorism and terrorist financing, the agency said, adding that it believes she has "enriched herself through profits" from Tren de Aragua.
The Council of the European Union on July 15 sanctioned Russian individuals and entities for committing human rights abuses and engaging in destabilizing actions abroad through foreign information manipulation.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is extending the effective dates for its June orders that were set to designate three Mexican financial institutions as primary money laundering concerns, which will block U.S. banks, securities brokers and other money services businesses from transmitting certain funds involving those entities (see 2506260014). Financial institutions will now have until Sept. 4 "to implement the orders prohibiting certain transmittal of funds involving" the three entities, FinCEN said. The designations were scheduled to take effect 21 days after they were published in the Federal Register on June 30.
The Council of the European Union on July 15 added people and entities to its Iran, Haiti and Moldova sanctions list and renewed the Haiti sanctions regime for another year.