The U.K. government this week issued new guidance to alert the country’s financial services industry about ways Russia is using third countries to evade export controls and sanctions. The “red alert” also includes a list of red flags that banks, credit card operators, foreign exchange dealers and other payment service providers should monitor for potential Russian sanctions evasion, and the country’s National Crime Agency urged financial institutions to submit reports about any suspicious activity.
China’s Ministry of Commerce criticized the U.S. government's recent sanctions against Chinese companies this week for illegally supplying Russia's military and defense industrial base (see 2312050046), saying the move is a "typical example of unilateral sanctions," which undermine international trade rules and affects the security of supply chains. China is "strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this,” the ministry said, according to an unofficial translation. The news release called for an immediate cessation of the sanctions, adding that China will "safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises."
Robert Wise, a New York-based lawyer who helped manage luxury properties for sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, was sentenced Dec. 5 to one year of house arrest followed by one year of probation. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil also levied a $100,000 fine against the lawyer, to be paid out in $8,333.33 monthly installments over the next year.
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.