The Bureau of Industry and Security's addition of 42 entities to the Entity List this week “sends a clear message” that the U.S. and its allies “are watching and will act forcefully” in response to Russian export control evasion, BIS official Thea Kendler said. “Our controls are in place to protect the national security of the United States, and bad actors that violate them will be held accountable.”
The U.S. charged Belgian national Hans Maria De Geetere this week in two separate indictments for allegedly helping to illegally export "military-grade technology" from the U.S. to end-users in China and Russia, DOJ said. The agency said the business owner tried to procure more than $2 million worth of illegal exports from undercover government agents, and told one Commerce Department agent that a shipment was destined for Belgium when it was actually meant for Hong Kong.
The State Department is offering up to a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Artem Aleksandrovich Uss, a Russian national who allegedly tried to violate U.S. export controls and sanctions. The agency said Uss used German industrial equipment company Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH to illegally export millions of dollars worth of military and sensitive dual-use technologies from the U.S. to Russia. He was also accused of using the U.S. financial system for payments related to the smuggling of millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 11 companies and eight people connected to the Alexander Lukashenko-led government in Belarus and what OFAC said is its “brutal suppression” of civil society, corruption and complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The designations target various state-controlled firms and others supporting the Lukashenko regime.
The U.S. this week announced new sanctions and export controls against a host of companies and people for violating export restrictions against Russia, including a Belgian businessman and his defense component procurement network. Along with new Treasury Department sanctions, DOJ said it was preparing to release two indictments against the man, Hans De Geetere, and the Bureau of Industry and Security added De Geetere, his affiliated companies and other unrelated parties to the Entity List for illegally supplying Russia’s military and defense industrial base.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week updated one entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List that is listed for being a Russia-related secondary sanctions risk. The change updates identifying information for Meroe Gold Co. LTD, which was sanctioned in 2020 for being a subsidiary of M Invest, a Russian company owned by now deceased Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 42 parties to the Entity List for helping to illegally supply parts and drones to Russia’s military industrial base, performing contracts for Russian government entities or for doing business with sanctioned companies. The companies and people added to the list are located in China, Cyprus, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
The U.K. amended one entry under its Russia sanctions regime and five entries under its Libya sanctions regime in a pair of Nov. 30 notices from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. The listing for Mihajlo Perencevic under the Russia restrictions was altered to reflect that he is the former, not current, president of construction, energy and extractive firm Velesstroy. Under the Libya restrictions list, OFSI amended the entries for Osama Al Kuni Ibrahim, Abd Al-Rahman Salim Ibrahim Al-Milad, Mohammed Al Amin Al-Arabi Kashlaf, Saadi Qadhafi and Sayyid Mohammed Qadhafi.
The EU General Court on Nov. 29 accepted the second application from Alexander Pumpyanskiy, son of Russian oligarch Dmitry Pumpyanskiy, to annul his sanctions relisting, according to an unofficial translation. The court rejected his claim for damages. Pumpyanskiy was sanctioned in March 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, because of his relationship to Dmitry Pumpyanskiy, and because he was president and board member of the Sinara Group.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Guatemalan ex-official last week for engaging in widespread bribery schemes, including schemes related to government contracts, OFAC said in a news release. Luis Miguel Martinez Morales is former head of the now-defunct Centro de Gobierno, and used that position to influence the “government contracts process to benefit himself and close associates,” OFAC said. He also “solicited large kickbacks to facilitate the purchase of the Russian Sputnik V vaccines by the Government of Guatemala,” OFAC said. Martinez was designated under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the agency said.