The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned more than a dozen companies, ships and Luay al-Mallah, brother of sanctioned “shipping Syrian magnate” Abdul Jalil Mallah, for helping to move Iranian crude oil and liquid petroleum gas to Syria and East Asia. After his brother was sanctioned, Luay al-Mallah helped run his family’s shipping business, OFAC said, which assists the shipping network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iran-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis (see 2408150008).
Lengthy license response times at the Office of Foreign Assets Controls are keeping many Iranian Americans from selling assets in Iran, especially if those assets are properties that have been gifts, Yazdanyar Law Offices said in a client alert this month.
Notable language included in the U.K.’s regulations for its new Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (see 2409130015) allows the agency to share information about possible violations with “any other regulatory body,” including those outside the U.K., Akin said in a client alert. The law firm said it expects to see OTSI “working closely with a range of sanctions coordinators globally to ensure trade sanctions operate effectively in cross-border matters.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five Colombian nationals and two Mexican businesses for ties to illegal drug trade.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued more guidance about its new Russia-related information technology and software services restrictions that took effect Sept. 12 (see 2409120033). One FAQ addresses questions about certain authorized services, and the other two address questions about the scope of the exclusions under the restrictions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has removed multiple companies from a list of flagged foreign suppliers accused of illegal sales to Russia, including one after the company told BIS it was added by mistake, Export Compliance Daily has learned.
The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere urged the Biden administration Sept. 20 to take further steps to cut the oil revenue the Venezuelan government has available to it to repress political dissent.
Companies should continue to expect an “aggressive” U.S. sanctions enforcement landscape heading into next year, and should consider increasing the amount of due diligence they undertake if they haven’t already, panelists said during an event last week about sanctions compliance.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five entities and one person involved with Russian and North Korean efforts to set up illegal payments mechanisms and help the countries evade sanctions. The designations target MRB Bank, based in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia, along with Russia-based TSMRBank, OOO; Russian Financial Corporation Bank JS; Stroytreyd LLC and Timer Bank, AO. OFAC also sanctioned Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin, vice president of TSMRBank.
The U.S. and Canada this week sanctioned various Iranian government officials responsible for violence against the Iranian people, targeting members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials with Iran’s Prisons Organization, and others responsible for suppressing protesters within the country or Iranians overseas.