The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated North Korea-based Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company and three people working closely with the company for helping North Korea evade sanctions. OFAC said Kim Se Un, Jo Kyong Hun and Myong Chol Min are either employed by the company or work with it to help generate revenue for the North Korean government, including by deploying information technology workers overseas to earn money.
The U.K. on July 23 amended a pair of Russia sanctions licenses pursuant to the U.K. Global Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons Sanctions Regulation 2025.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is now accepting licensing questions through a new online platform and is planning to retire its current callback-only telephone system on Aug. 29, the agency said this week. Users that submit questions through the online platform will receive answers about specific OFAC licenses and interpretive guidance via email or by phone. Before submitting questions, OFAC said, users are encouraged to review existing sanctions FAQs, watch OFAC’s video guidance on applying for a license, review the agency’s best practices for license applications, and check their license application status.
China this week criticized the EU’s recent decision to sanction more than 25 mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies for supporting Russia's military-industrial complex (see 2507180017), saying the bloc’s allegations are “groundless." Beijing “is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it,” a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said July 21 in response to a reporter's question at a regular press conference, according to an unofficial translation.
The U.K. is accepting public comments on how the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation can improve its civil enforcement of financial sanctions and whether it should adopt several proposed changes to its current practices. Those include:
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two people and five entities involved in money laundering and importing petroleum products into territory controlled by Houthis, the group designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization in March (see 2503040008). The designations target a network across Yemen and the United Arab Emirates for being “among the most significant importers” of petroleum products and money launderers for the Houthis.
The U.K. on July 21 sanctioned United Arab Emirates-based companies Intershipping Services and Litasco Middle East DMCC for doing business involving the Russian energy sector. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation also issued a new general license that authorizes certain transactions with Intershipping Services involving ships owned by the government of Gabon.
Canada issued a special bulletin this month about the risks posed to companies and financial institutions by sanctions evaders, especially those looking to buy dual-use items or send money to fund terrorism. The 10-page bulletin outlines the Canadian laws that prohibit sanctions evasion, a set of evasion “indicators,” how companies should be complying with sanctions laws, and more.
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.”