Four Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo a series of recommendations for strengthening firearms export controls, Warren’s office said Jan. 24.
The U.K. issued an alert this week warning that Russian oligarchs may be using artwork storage facilities to hide their frozen assets, evade sanctions or launder money. People and companies involved in the art industry should be conducting “regular due diligence checks to understand any change in a client’s circumstances, or those of elites they may represent,” the country’s National Crime Agency, Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation and other agencies said.
The U.S. and the U.K. this week sanctioned four senior officials of the Yemen-based Houthis for their ties to the group’s recent attacks on commercial cargo ships (see 2401180050). The designations target Houthi Defense Minister Mohamed al-Atifi, maritime forces commander Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi, coastal defense forces chief Muhammad Ali al-Qadiri and procurement director Muhammad Ahmad al-Talibi. The Treasury Department noted that al-Talibi leads the group’s efforts to smuggle Iranian-provided weapons, missiles, drones and parts to Yemen.
Companies should avoid internal policies that require them to disclose all potential sanctions and export control violations to the government, lawyers with Foley Hoag said this week. Although it may seem like a sound compliance policy, the lawyers said that language can backfire, including in cases where a voluntary disclosure may not be the best option.
Companies should expect the Bureau of Industry and Security to announce new export controls this year restricting certain U.S. person activities involving military and military intelligence end uses and end users, a former BIS official said.
Rimon Law added two partners and one associate to its international trade practice, the firm said. The new partners are James Min, former global chair of international trade law for the DHL Group and Mi-Yong Kim, former partner at LimNexus. The firm also added Chelsea Ellis, former LimNexus associate, as an associate. Rimon also announced the launch of its export controls and economic sanctions practice. Ellis, Kim and Min join partner Daanish Hamid in that practice. Sandra Bell, former deputy assistant commissioner at CBP's Office of International Trade, also recently joined the firm (see 2401120064).
The recently enacted Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) will close a long-standing gap in anti-corruption enforcement by enabling the U.S. government to prosecute non-U.S. government officials who solicit or receive bribes, Dechert said in a Jan. 22 legal update.
The State Department is offering up to $15 million for information leading to the “disruption of financial mechanisms” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including mechanisms used by Hossein Hatefi Ardakani, an Iranian businessman who helps procure technology and parts for Iran’s weapons programs, the agency said this week. Ardakani, who was charged in December with export control violations (see 2312190069), uses a network of companies in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates to buy items from the U.S. and other countries and ship them to Iran, the State Department said. The agency said U.S. aviation parts bought by Ardakani’s network have been found in destroyed Iranian drones on Ukraine battlefields.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network adjusted its civil monetary penalties for inflation, the agency said in a notice this week. The new amounts include higher maximum penalties for various record-keeping and banking violations associated with funds transfers, which can sometimes violate U.S. sanctions. It also for the first time outlines adjusted penalty amounts for violations of the agency's new beneficial ownership information reporting requirements (see 2401050023). The changes take effect Jan. 25.
The European Commission this week released a package of proposals that could lead to new restrictions for a host of transactions involving dual-use technologies, including by expanding the bloc’s screening of inbound investments, improving export control coordination among member states and studying the possibility of new outbound investment restrictions.