Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Former U.S. and U.K. national security officials warned the British government about aligning too closely with a decoupling strategy toward China, saying this week that the U.K. should carefully manage sensitive trade issues but not in a way that strains economic ties with Beijing.
President Donald Trump appeared to signal June 24 that the U.S. no longer will sanction China for purchases of Iranian oil.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week officially released its enforcement order, charging letter and settlement agreement involving Unicat Catalyst Technologies, the Texas-based industrial equipment supplier that recently was assessed millions of dollars in combined penalties by BIS, DOJ and the Office of Foreign Assets Control for allegedly violating export control and sanctions laws (see 2506170047).
Australia should impose an arms embargo on Israel along with other sanctions in response to human rights violations committed by the Israeli government and some Israeli citizens against Palestinians in the West Bank, the Australian Center for International Justice said.
Organizations complying with Australian anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing rules may soon be required to carry out certain sanctions screening procedures to make sure they’re not violating the country’s sanctions laws.
The Council of the European Union on June 23 sanctioned five people associated with the regime of former Syrian President Bashar Assad for their "crimes against humanity and for fueling sectarian violence." Three of the people -- Miqdad Fatiha, Ghaith Dalla and Suhayl al-Hasan -- are former members of the Syrian Republic Guard and Armed Forces who formed militias that "fueled sectarian tensions and incited violence" after the fall of the Assad regime. The council also listed two businessmen, Mudalal Khoury and Imad Khoury, who helped finance crimes against humanity committed under the regime, including the use of chemical weapons.
A large U.S. sanctions penalty earlier this month is a sign of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s rising compliance expectations for investment firms, accountants, wealth advisers and other financial “gatekeepers,” particularly if they’re aware that funds may be indirectly tied to a sanctioned person, law firms said. The fine, which was the largest OFAC penalty since 2023, also could begin a trend of tougher enforcement on those gatekeepers, law firms said, especially if they rely on wrong legal advice or don’t fully cooperate with OFAC.
Sanctioned Russian shadow fleet vessels can receive port access and services at an EU port if they’re carrying dangerous or polluting goods that need to be unloaded, the European Commission said in a new FAQ last week. Those vessels can offload “for a unique emergency port call” if they were sanctioned while they were carrying the cargo, the FAQ said, “and in any case not later than 30 days from the date of targeting.” It also said a “60-day winddown period is justified” in cases where other circumstances “do not allow for an earlier offloading of the dangerous or polluting goods and serious risks persist that could endanger human life, marine environments, and coastal infrastructure.”
Malaysia said it's looking into reports that a Chinese company is using servers with Nvidia chips and artificial intelligence chips for large language models training in Malaysia. The country's Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry is "still in the process of verifying the matter with relevant agencies if any domestic law or regulation has been breached."