President Joe Biden issued a new executive order expanding a Trump-era policy that banned investments in Chinese military companies (see 2105190009). The order, issued June 3, includes an initial list of 59 entities and expands the scope of the restrictions to cover companies operating in China’s surveillance technology sector, which the White House said produces technologies to commit human rights violations against Muslim minorities.
The U.S. sanctioned six Bulgarians and 64 entities for their “extensive roles in corruption" in Bulgaria, the Treasury and State departments said June 2. OFAC said the designations represented the “single largest action targeting corruption to date” and demonstrated the agency’s commitment to sanctioning corrupt business networks. The measures target former and current Bulgarian government officials -- Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, Delyan Slavchev Peevski and Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov -- along with 64 of their entities. The State Department also announced that it designated Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev and Krasimir Tomov, as well as Peevski and Zhelyazkov, for corruption.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a general license authorizing transactions between certain companies and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, OFAC said June 1. General License No. 8H, which replaces No. 8G (see 2011170015), authorizes transactions between PdVSA and Chevron, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International, with certain restrictions, through 12:01 a.m. EST Dec. 1. The license was scheduled to expire June 3.
Dave Stetson, former senior lawyer at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Steptoe & Johnson's International Trade and Regulatory Compliance Group as a partner in the New York office, the firm announced in a June 1 news release. Stetson previously served as the lead sanctions lawyer for Goldman Sachs' global business lines. At OFAC, Stetson was an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Chief Counsel, where he conducted reviews for OFAC licenses and advised on the drafting of sanctions statutes, executive orders and regulations.
Tina Chen, a resident of Las Vegas and owner of electronics and computer components exporter Top One Zone, was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to export goods from the U.S. to Iran, the Department of Justice said in a May 28 news release. Chen allegedly worked with others to purchase and ship goods from U.S. companies through entities in Hong Kong to individuals in Iran without a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Chen hid the identities of the end-users, DOJ alleged. She is charged with one count of conspiracy to unlawfully export goods to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations -- a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
In complying with a May 25 U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia order to remove the “Communist Chinese military company” designation from Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a FAQ May 27 saying that the prohibitions under the designation “do not apply with respect to Xiaomi.” The Defense Department and Xiaomi jointly moved to drop the label after District Judge Rudolph Contreras said it violated the Administrative Procedure Act and was made on insufficient evidence (see 2105120047). To date, two other companies so labeled have challenged the designation in the D.C. district court, and one, Luokung Technologies, has been granted a preliminary injunction.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control released its Myanmar Sanctions Regulations to implement a February executive order that authorized sanctions against the country for the military-led coup earlier this year (see 2102100060). The regulations, effective June 1, were released in an “abbreviated form” to give “immediate guidance to the public,” OFAC said in a notice. The agency plans to supplement the regulations with more “interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions.” The regulations include general definitions, information on blocked and exempt transactions, licensing requirements and penalties.
The Treasury Department’s upcoming budget proposal will ask for more money to address sanctions evasion practices, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a House Appropriations subcommittee May 27. Yellen said the agency is focused on limiting evasion tactics and is hoping to collaborate more with allies to address those issues and increase the overall effectiveness of economic sanctions.
President Joe Biden on May 26 officially announced nominations to fill two senior Treasury Department positions that oversee sanctions (see 2104300068). Biden nominates attorney Brian Nelson to be undersecretary of the Terrorism and Financial Intelligence office, which oversees the Office of Foreign Assets Control. He also nominates Treasury adviser Elizabeth Rosenberg for assistant secretary of terrorist financing.
Congress and the administration can take a more active role to allow humanitarian aid to better flow to sanctioned regions in Africa, which is often hindered from receiving that aid, charitable groups and sanctions experts told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa May 25. Some of the issues lie with licenses issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and a slow bureaucratic process that unintentionally slows aid shipments, they said.