Two Iranian businessmen sanctioned by the U.S. said they were illegally targeted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and asked the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to vacate their designations. Behzad Ferdows and Mehrzad Ferdows, residents of Germany and Iran, said in a Nov. 5 lawsuit that OFAC violated “constitutional norms,” statutory requirements and failed to follow due process when the agency sanctioned both men in September.
Three U.S. companies said they may have violated U.S. sanctions or export controls related to overseas sales and illegally processed payments, according to their most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The potential violations include disclosures of dealings with sanctioned businesses, including sales to Iran.
The Bureau of Industry and Security did not impose penalties on a U.S. electronics company that had disclosed potential export violations (see 1911290004) for shipments involving Iran and Syria, Arrow Electronics said in an Oct. 29 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Arrow, which disclosed that it helped ship $5,000 worth of products to resellers covered by U.S. sanctions, said BIS closed its investigation and issued the company a warning letter with no penalties. BIS declined to comment. Arrow said it is still being investigated by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for the sanctions violations, which “may result in the imposition of penalties.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a sanctions advisory and guidance on Oct. 30 about the risks associated with dealing in high-value works of art. The guidance outlines which art markets may present sanctions risks and urges galleries, museums, agents, auctioneers and collectors to maintain a compliance program. OFAC also stressed that transactions involving expensive artwork are “not categorically exempt” from the Berman Amendment to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act. The amendment “generally exempts” imports of art from IEEPA regulations, but OFAC said it does “not interpret this exemption to allow blocked persons or their facilitators to evade sanctions by exchanging financial assets such as cash, gold, or cryptocurrency for high-value artwork or vice versa.” OFAC said it will apply both IEEPA and TWEA sanctions on any art-related dealing involving a blocked person “to the extent the artwork functions primarily as an investment asset or medium of exchange.”
The agency responsible for U.S. financial sanctions lost a record number of employees last year, a trend former officials and industry lawyers say has led to longer processing times and an influx of new officials.
The U.S sanctioned 11 entities and five people in Iran, China and Singapore for illegally buying and selling Iranian oil, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said Oct. 29. The designations target entities for working with Hong Kong-based Triliance Petrochemical, sanctioned in January (see 2001230040), to “move funds generated” by the Iranian oil sales.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Oct. 29 issued an Iran-related general license related to exports of “educational services” and released a new frequently asked question. General License M authorizes U.S. “academic institutions” to export “additional services” to Iranian students who meet certain conditions, including those who have been granted a nonimmigrant visa by the State Department, OFAC said. The license authorizes exports of a range of educational courses -- including material related so humanities, law, business, technology and science -- to students who cannot be in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic. OFAC said it also authorizes “the exportation of certain software to facilitate the participation of certain Iranian students in certain online educational activities.” The actions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EDT on Sept. 1, 2021.
New U.S. restrictions and prohibitions on remittances to Cuba will “directly harm the Cuban people” and are a “direct attack” on family remittances, the Cuban government said Oct. 28. “Doing so in the middle of a pandemic corroborates the US government’s cynicism, opportunism and contempt for the Cuban people,” the Cuban government said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control amended and reissued its Yemen Sanctions regulations to include more guidance, general licenses and statements of licensing policy, OFAC said in a final rule released Oct. 28. The rule, which takes effect Oct. 29, provides a more “comprehensive” set of regulations aimed to “provide further guidance to the public.” The rule mainly adds clarifications, new definitions and specifies when certain transactions are authorized by general licenses. New general licenses now included in the regulations authorize certain transactions relating to “investment and reinvestment of certain funds, payments for legal services from funds originating outside the United States, and official activities of international organizations,” OFAC said.
Sixteen African countries urged the lifting of all international sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying it is suffering from a range of “socio-economic challenges” caused by the restrictions and the COVID-19 pandemic. Sanctions should be “unconditionally lifted for Zimbabwe to improve the livelihoods of her citizens, and develop unhindered,” Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, president of Mozambique and the chair of the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, said in an Oct. 24 news release. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control did not comment.