The U.K. Revenue and Customs issued nearly $4.4 million in compound settlement offers pertaining to unlicensed exports of dual use goods, military goods and related controlled activities in November and December 2022, the Department for International Trade announced. The settlement offers were made to four unnamed U.K. exporters, with the largest settlement of $2.3 million in December for the unlicensed exports of military goods.
Shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk is seeking around $43 million from Evergreen Marine over its Ever Given container ship's blockage of the Suez Canal in 2021, ShippingWatch reported. Filing suit at Denmark's Maritime and Commercial Court over losses caused by the Ever Given, Maersk said the blockage forced the company to divert vessels and suffer delays of shipping lines. Evergreen denied liability for the damages, ShippingWatch reported.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in a pair of Feb. 10 notices added three entries to its global anti-corruption sanctions regime and corrected two entries under its cyber sanctions list. Listings for Vasil Kroumov Bozhkov, Delyan Slavchev Peevski and Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov -- all Bulgarian nationals -- were added to the global anti-corruption restrictions, subjecting the individuals to an asset freeze and travel ban.
The U.K. adopted the U.N.'s humanitarian exemption across 14 of its sanctions regimes. The exemption allows certain organizations to deliver humanitarian assistance without violating U.N. asset freezes.
U.K. Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch visited Mexico Feb. 9 to promote two post-Brexit trade deals, "remove barriers to business, and grow both UK exports and investment," the Department for International Trade said. During the two-day visit, Badenoch held talks with Mexico's Secretary of Economy Raquel Buenrostro to discuss the U.K.'s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and a new U.K.-Mexico trade deal. The new deal will look to address areas such as services and tech.
The U.K.'s Department for International Trade's Export Control Joint Unit updated its guidance for supplying professional services to an individual linked with Russia. The guidance now provides an overview of Russia service sanctions and discusses compliance, exceptions and licenses, and professional and business services sanctions in effect since Dec. 16. These banned services include advertising services, architectural and engineering services, auditing services and IT consultancy and design services.
The U.K. corrected one entry under its Russia sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a Feb. 9 notice. The entry for Evgeny Shkolov, deputy board chairman of JSC System Operator of the Unified Energy System, was corrected to add the middle name Mikhailovich to one of his alternate names.
The European Council updated various frequently asked questions pages under its Russia sanctions regime. New FAQs on customs-related matters, oblasts, humanitarian aid and circumvention and due diligence were released, adding to the guidance for transactions linked with trade in the Donets, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The EU General Court recently rejected a claim from former Ukrainian Minister of Revenues and Duties Oleksandr Klymenko looking for over $53,000 in reputational damages and over $2.1 million -- plus around $536 a month -- in damages stemming from his sanctions listing, according to an unofficial translation. Klymenko was listed under the EU's Ukraine misappropriation of state funds regime from 2015 to 2021.
The U.K. amended 28 entries under its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime and corrected another four, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The amended entities were for 25 individuals and three entities. The entry corrections were for Mohamad Abdurrahman, Iyad Ag Ghali, Mohamed Belkalem and Mohamed Mostafa.