The Biden administration recently announced a series of new sanctions measures against Russia that take aim at the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny and officials connected to the country’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Several U.S. and multinational companies recently disclosed potential U.S. sanctions violations or updated previous disclosures. The cases involve a destruction of evidence in a sanctions investigation, potentially illegal transactions with Iran, a gaming software company and others.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 17 released a comprehensive list of the Belarusian people and entities it sanctioned Aug. 9 for human rights violations, corruption and other reasons. The notice includes identifying information for the new entries and reasons for each of the designations, some of which were made under the agency’s new Belarus sanctions authority (see 2108090033).
Two lawmakers said the U.S. should impose more sanctions against Cuba for its suppression of pro-democracy protests, but other measures are needed as well.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 13 sanctioned an Omani businessman and his companies for aiding an international oil smuggling network that supports Iran. The agency also designated more Cuban government officials and a military unit for human rights violations.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network fined one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange companies $100 million for failing to maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program, which violated the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a recent penalty notice. The violations also exposed other BitMEX compliance issues, including its deficient sanctions screening.
The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked export privileges for Matteo Taerri for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, BIS said in an Aug. 10 order. Taerri was convicted June 4, 2020, after illegally trying to export a U.S.-origin Prostak filter module to Iran without the required license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Taerri was sentenced to time served, three years of supervised release and issued a $200 fine. BIS denied Taerri’s export privileges for 10 years from the date of conviction.
The Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a fact sheet this week highlighting the various exemptions and authorizations available for companies, people and exporters providing telecommunications goods and services to Cuba. The five-page guidance covers OFAC general licenses and BIS license exceptions and comes as the Biden administration tries to increase sanctions pressure on the Cuban government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in recent weeks (see 2107300063).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s designations of five people last week (see 2108060043) targeted terrorism leaders in Africa, the State Department said Aug. 6. The sanctions targeted leaders with the Islamic State group, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and al-Shabaab.
President Joe Biden issued a new executive order to expand existing U.S. sanctions authorities against Belarus and issued a host of new designations targeting the country’s government for last year’s “fraudulent” presidential elections. The Aug. 9 order authorizes sanctions against a broad range of government officials, oligarchs, entities and private companies, including those operating in Belarus’ defense, energy, security, potassium chloride, transportation and construction sectors. Sanctions are also authorized against people or entities with links to “public corruption” in Belarus or transactions deemed to be “deceptive or structured” to evade U.S. sanctions on behalf of the Belarusian government.