Lawmakers unveiled a new continuing resolution late Dec. 19 that doesn't include the outbound investment restrictions and export control and sanctions provisions that an earlier version contained (see 2412180034).
The U.K. amended its listing for Autel Robotics Co., Ltd., under the Russia sanctions regime on Dec. 18 to reflect a different address. The company was originally sanctioned in July for making unmanned aerial vehicle systems for the Russian military.
Canadian-German national Klaus Pflugbeil, a resident of China, was sentenced Dec. 16 to two years in prison for conspiring to steal and transmit a U.S.-based electric vehicle company's trade secrets, DOJ announced. Pflugbeil pleaded guilty in June, admitting to trying to use a U.S. company's trade secrets to set up his own business in China (see 2406140025). Pflugbeil was originally charged alongside his business partner, Yilong Shao, who remains at large.
The U.S. this week arrested a dual U.S.-Iranian national living in Massachusetts and an Iranian national, charging both with conspiring to ship "sophisticated electronic components" from the U.S. to Iran in violation of U.S. export controls and sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is updating its general licenses that authorize certain payments for legal services from funds originating outside the U.S., it announced in a final rule effective Dec. 19. The rule is applicable March 12.
Semiconductor companies should expect more export control rules from the Bureau of Industry and Security before the Trump administration takes office, including possibly new licensing rules and record-keeping requirements for certain chip exports to destinations outside of China, trade lawyer Charles Capito said.
Donald Trump's return to the White House brings a "lack of predictability," Baker McKenzie attorneys said during a webinar last week on how threatened tariffs could affect countries around the globe.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined C.H. Robinson, one of the world’s largest logistics firms, more than $250,000 after OFAC said its non-U.S. subsidiaries violated sanctions against Iran and Cuba. The five subsidiaries allegedly provided freight brokerage or transportation services for 82 shipments to or from Iran or involving Iranian or Cuban goods, while one of the companies also did business with sanctioned Iranian airline Mahan Air.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed a range of Latin America-related entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List, including multiple people and entities the agency had accused of having links to illegal drug trafficking.
China appears to be preparing to use its own set of extraterritorial export controls against the U.S. in response to the Biden administration’s latest chip restrictions and Entity List additions, an official with the U.S.-China Business Council said.