The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved several bills July 22 aimed at speeding up the foreign arms sales process, strengthening the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership and enhancing certain Iran sanctions.
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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.
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 Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a Connecticut-based online investment broker $11,832,136 to settle alleged violations of multiple U.S. sanctions programs, saying the company illegally provided services to sanctioned people and restricted countries, and it processed trades in securities of blocked Chinese military companies.
Reps. Young Kim, R-Calif., Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., and Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., introduced a bill June 27 aimed at improving defense trade within the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership, especially the technology development collaboration activities envisioned under Pillar II.
President Donald Trump’s comment June 24 that China can now buy Iranian oil despite U.S. sanctions (see 2506240049) drew mixed reactions on Capitol Hill.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network soon will issue a rule designating 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.
The U.S. should quickly move forward with new secondary sanctions against supporters of Russia, government leaders and think tank officials said this week, and they urged the EU to do more to hold Beijing accountable for helping Russia evade sanctions.
Chinese purchases of Iranian oil will continue to be subject to U.S. sanctions despite President Donald Trump saying June 24 that China can now buy Iranian oil (see 2506240049), a senior White House official said.