The U.S. appears to have departed from its long-standing policy of keeping national security-related export controls off the negotiating table during trade talks with China last week, said Brad Setser, senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury Department official.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should consider working with companies to help them carry out extra due diligence for certain chip exports and should introduce a notification requirement for exports of advanced AI chips, researchers said in a new report last week. Those and other recommendations could help BIS better prevent illegal chip smuggling, they said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security, which is seeking a major budget increase in FY 2026 (see 2505020030), would use the funding boost to add hundreds of employees to enhance its compliance and enforcement capabilities, agency head Jeffrey Kessler said June 12.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied June 11 that the Trump administration has agreed to relax controls on chip exports to China in return for China curbing its own restrictions on rare earth exports.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week fined California-based venture capital firm GVA Capital more than $215 million for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Russia and for failing to comply with an OFAC subpoena. The firm knowingly managed an investment for sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, OFAC said.
DOJ announced last week that it opened a civil forfeiture action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against more than $7.74 million allegedly laundered on behalf of the North Korean government. The funds were initially "restrained" as part of an indictment against North Korean banker Sim Hyon Sop, who was allegedly conspiring with North Korean information technology workers who illegally "amassed millions in cryptocurrency" as a means of evading sanctions on North Korea, DOJ said.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a bill June 10 that would require the State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chairman of the House’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said June 10 that he plans to reintroduce a bill that would sanction foreign entities and individuals who directly engage in transnational repression.
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 U.S. and China reached an agreement for Beijing to rein in export curbs on critical minerals, and for the U.S. to "provide to China what was agreed to," President Donald Trump said June 11, offering few details about the substance of the deal.