The U.K.’s Department for Business & Trade will soon remove a “licensing consideration” that outlines a pathway for U.K. companies to apply for a license to provide certain services to their Russian subsidiaries, the agency announced this week. Beginning Oct. 31, the U.K. will remove wording from its statutory guidance on Russia sanctions that described this license, saying it may no longer “be consistent with the aims of the sanctions regime.”
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Oct. 1 added two new frequently asked questions to provide guidance on how sanctions apply to Russia-related securities settlements and trust services.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several China-based companies, a person in Iran and others for helping to move weapons, dual-use items or commercial goods in support of the Houthis, the Yemen-based group that the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in January (see 2401170025).
The U.S., U.K. and Australia this week sanctioned a group of people and entities that they said have ties to Russian cybercriminal group Evil Corp., which the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated in 2019 for its international hacking campaigns.
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The U.K. will remove the licensing consideration relating to the provision of professional and business services from U.K. parent companies and their U.K. subsidiaries to their Russian subsidiaries, the Export Control Joint Unit announced on Sept. 30. Starting Oct. 31, the provision of intra-corporate services will no longer stand as a licensing consideration "that is likely to be consistent with the aims of the sanctions regime." The agency said companies looking to provide intra-corporate services to their Russian subsidiaries must "explicitly demonstrate how the provision of any ongoing services aligns with the overarching purposes of the sanctions."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed Swiss national Inga Rettich from its Specially Designated Nationals List, who it originally sanctioned in 2022 for ties to Russian businessman and investor Murat Magomedovich Aliev. OFAC also deleted the vessel Flying Fox, a Cayman Islands-flagged yacht that it sanctioned in 2022 for being owned by Imperial Yachts SARL, a yacht brokerage for Russian elites. The agency didn’t release more information.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week deleted Prominvestbank, a former Ukrainian bank, from its Specially Designated Nationals List. It was forcibly liquidated by the National Bank of Ukraine after Russia took control of the bank following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The bank remains on OFAC's Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List, which includes people and entities that the agency said are operating in certain significant sectors of the Russian economy. OFAC didn’t release more information.
A senior U.S. Treasury Department official said the agency has made progress in addressing criticism that its sanctions are ineffective and difficult to comply with, pointing to recent guidance issued by Treasury and the increase in U.S. sanctions coordinated with close U.S. allies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has reviewed more than 1,250 suspicious activity reports (SARs) submitted to the government as part of an effort with the Treasury Department to collect more tips from industry about possible Russia-related sanctions or export control violations, said Matthew Axelrod, the top BIS export enforcement official.