As lawmakers consider imposing new sanctions on Russia, they should ensure they don’t hinder the Trump administration’s ability to negotiate a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said June 11.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned various people and sham charities located abroad for being "prominent financial supporters" of the military and terrorist activities of Hamas. The people and charities help to fund the Hamas military wing "under the pretense of conducting humanitarian work," including aid work in Gaza, OFAC said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is drafting a new regulation that could create a 50%-ownership threshold rule for parties on the Entity List, a BIS official said this week.
The U.S. this week sanctioned Los Chapitos, part of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, which controls laboratories that insert fentanyl in counterfeit pills that are later trafficked to the U.S. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned two fugitive leaders of Los Chapitos and a regional network of Los Chapitos associates and businesses based in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. OFAC said they’re involved in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and money laundering.
Trade enforcement under President Donald Trump could "look a little different" than how the federal government has previously acted because of how the DOJ seems now to want to focus on holding individuals accountable, as opposed to corporations, according to a trade lawyer speaking during a June 6 webinar hosted by the Massachusetts Export Center.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned more than 40 people and entities tied to Iranian brothers Mansour, Nasser and Fazlolah Zarringhalam, who have laundered billions of dollars’ worth of funds through the international financial system for Iran's “shadow banking” network, the Treasury Department said. The designations target front companies in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong along with "affiliated businessmen" and others who have ties to sales of Iranian energy.
The Bureau of Industry and Security's recently issued advanced chip guidance appears to raise compliance expectations for industry, especially for banks and forwarders that may be indirectly or inadvertently violating export controls on China, lawyers said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several people with ties to drug trafficking in Guyana, Colombia and Venezuela, including Mark Cromwell, Himnauth Sawh, Randolph Duncan, Paul Daby Jr., Yeison Andres Sanchez Vallejo and Manuel Salazar Gutierrez. OFAC said Guyana has been a transshipment point for drugs moving from South America to the U.S. and Europe for “decades,” including shipments of cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela and through the waters of Guyana and Suriname.
The U.S. this week sanctioned four International Criminal Court judges and issued several general licenses to authorize certain transactions with those judges or with the ICC that otherwise would be blocked by the Trump administration’s sanctions authorities against the judicial body (see 2502070022).
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Trump administration June 4 to investigate whether terrorists have used Elon Musk's social media platform X to raise money, in violation of U.S. sanctions.