The EU this week updated its dual-use export control list to align it with decisions taken by the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement, Missile Technology Control Regime, Australia Group and Nuclear Supplier Group in 2024. The update "also includes commitments that Member States have accepted, as members of the Wassenaar Arrangement, to control additional items uniformly," the European Commission said.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which issued an interim final rule in March to revise its implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), is reviewing public comments on it to help write a final rule, Director Andrea Gacki said Sept. 9.
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U.S. sanctions and export controls have had only a limited impact on Russia’s ability to raise revenue and obtain technology for its war machine, as Moscow has taken various steps to get around American restrictions, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Sept. 8.
Anne Fisher, a former official with the Bureau of Industry and Security's chief counsel office, has joined Hogan Lovells' international trade and investment practice, the firm said. Fisher, who left BIS in July after first joining in October 2022, will advise on U.S. export control laws, economic sanctions, customs, foreign investment and other issues. She was at Hogan Lovells before going to BIS.
The U.S. is prepared to increase pressure on Russia through coordinated sanctions with the EU, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sept. 7 on NBC's "Meet the Press." Bessent said that if the EU and the U.S. "can come in, do more sanctions, secondary tariffs on the countries that buy Russian oil," then the Russian economy "will be in full collapse. And that will bring President [Vladimir] Putin to the table." His comments come after what he described as a "very productive" phone call with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He said that the EU and the U.S. are in a race between how long the Ukrainian military can "hold up, versus how long can the Russian economy hold up."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of what it said are scam centers operating across Southeast Asia, saying they steal billions of dollars from Americans using forced labor and violence. The designations target people, companies and centers operating in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar, a "notorious hub for virtual currency investment scams," as well as 10 centers and affiliated people and entities in Cambodia.
A British bank failed to stop a newly sanctioned person from withdrawing money even after the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation warned the bank beforehand that the person soon would be designated, OFSI said in an enforcement notice released this week.
The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will again renew relaxed export restrictions for certain defense goods and services involving Cyprus, it said in a final rule released this week and effective Oct. 1. The agency has issued the renewal each year since 2020 (see 2309130028), suspending its policy of denial for exports, reexports and transfers of defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List to Cyprus. The move also suspends the policy of denial for retransfers and temporary imports destined for or originating in Cyprus and brokering activities involving Cyprus. The latest renewal expires Sept. 30, 2026.
A new executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump authorizes sanctions and export controls against any country determined to have wrongfully detained U.S. nationals. The order allows the State Department to designate certain foreign countries a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention, which would authorize International Emergency Economic Powers Act sanctions against the country and export controls under the Arms Export Control Act, the Export Control Reform Act “or any other Federal law.”