DOJ is revising its corporate enforcement policy to encourage more voluntary disclosures, including by outlining a clearer path for self-reporting companies to avoid criminal prosecutions, the agency said. It’s also adding trade and sanctions to the list of “priority areas” for its whistleblower awards program.
The Bureau of Industry and Security officially announced this week that it plans to rescind the Biden administration’s AI diffusion export control rule and issue a “replacement rule in the future.” The agency also issued new guidance about how using Huawei Ascend chips and other Chinese chips likely violates U.S. export controls, published recommendations for companies to protect their supply chains against “diversion tactics,” and outlined the types of activities involving AI chips and AI models that may trigger a license requirement.
Jerrob Duffy, former head of DOJ's litigation unit in the criminal fraud section, has joined Hogan Lovells as a partner in the investigations, white collar and fraud practice, the firm announced. Duffy joins from Squire Patton, and his practice includes sanctions violations, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceedings and the False Claims Act investigations, Hogan Lovells said.
Former senior DOJ official Matthew McKenzie has joined defense contractor RTX as director and counsel for global trade, he announced on LinkedIn. McKenzie left DOJ this month after working at the agency for 10 years, including stints as the acting deputy chief for export controls and sanctions and the national coordinator for the Disruptive Technology Strike Force.
Alan Estevez, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security during the Biden administration, has joined Covington & Burling as a senior adviser. Estevez is joining the firm's practice groups working on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and international trade controls. Estevez served as undersecretary for more than three years, during which he oversaw the introduction and implementation of a range of new export control rules to restrict sales of advanced semiconductors and chip-related technology to China; new export restrictions against Russia; the continued expansion of the Entity List; and more.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., reintroduced a bill April 30 that would authorize the State Department to sanction Vietnamese officials complicit in human rights abuses, such as torture and the suppression of religious freedom. The Vietnam Human Rights Act was referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees. The bill has received five previous House approvals -- in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2012 and 2013 -- but has stalled in the Senate each time.
A bipartisan group of five senators urged the Trump administration May 9 to use “all available tools” to hold foreign entities accountable for fueling Sudan’s two-year-old civil war.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., urged the Trump administration May 12 to impose additional sanctions on those fueling unrest in Haiti.
The U.K. extended its sanctions license permitting the winding down of transactions with Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V., which is a majority-owned subsidiary of sanctioned Russian bank Alfa-Bank. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation extended the license until May 12, 2030. OFSI also amended the license to say that any party, including the "Bankruptcy Trustees and any other insolvency practitioner," can make, receive or process any payments or "exercise all rights" in connection with any insolvency proceeding related to ATB or "the fulfilment of the Bankruptcy Trustees' statutory functions."
The U.S. this week sanctioned three Iranian nationals and one entity for their ties to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, which works on nuclear weapons projects. The designations target Sayyed Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber, Ahmad Haghighat Talab and Mohammad Reza Mehdipur along with the entity Fuya Pars Prospective Technologists.