Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he is concerned about the “growing relationship” between Venezuela and China, and urged the Biden administration to threaten sanctions against China for aiding the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in Caracas. In a Sept. 13 letter, Rubio noted that Maduro is in Beijing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, where Maduro is “expected to request economic and development assistance” from China. The U.S. should declare that “any decision by a Chinese entity to provide new funding for the Venezuelan regime will be met with U.S. sanctions,” Rubio said.
The U.S. this week announced new Russia-related sanctions, designating more than 150 Russian business people, government officials, financial institutions, technology suppliers and foreign companies for supplying Russia with controlled goods or aiding the government. The sanctions include nearly 100 new designations imposed by the Treasury Department and more than 70 designations by the State Department and are designed to undermine Russia’s military supply chains, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
A newly released Europol report, "The Other Side of the Coin: An Analysis of Financial and Economic Crime," looks into the threats posed by financial crimes and sanctions evasion linked to organized crime. The report reviews "drivers of today's financial and economic crimes"; money laundering, criminal finances and corruption; the "world of frauds"; intellectual property crime; and more.
The EU updated a FAQ under its Russia sanctions regime covering whether Russian nationals may temporarily bring personal goods and vehicles, set out in Annex XXI, into the EU for touristic reasons. The FAQ was originally published last week, in which the bloc said no, noting that its regulations bar the purchase, import or transfer of goods in this annex if they originate in Russia or are exported from Russia (see 2309110018).
The State Department published a final rule in the Federal Register this week to officially extend relaxed export restrictions for certain defense goods and services involving Cyprus. The agency announced last month that it planned to renew the measures (see 2308210013), which were first introduced in a September 2020 rule that amended the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to relax restrictions surrounding exports of nonlethal defense goods and services to Cyprus, and also eased restrictions on reexports, retransfers and temporary imports (see 2009020045). The agency has extended the rule each year since (see 2209190009 and 2211210028). The latest renewal, effective Oct. 1, expires Sept. 30, 2024.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should explore several changes to the Export Administration Regulations to better prevent exported technologies from being used for human rights violations, including by maintaining a regularly updated list of EAR99 items that are likely to be misused by authoritarian regimes, said Annie Boyajian, vice president for policy and advocacy for Freedom House. Boyajian also suggested BIS engage more with civil society groups, including by creating a formal mechanism that would allow those groups to inform the agency about new ways technologies are being misused.
The upcoming U.S. outbound investment restrictions (see 2308090066 and 2308100045) should be overseen by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, not the agency that heads the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Republicans said this week. Several lawmakers, including Patrick McHenry, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, said the new outbound investment restrictions are similar to a sanctions program as opposed to the case-by-case review process overseen by CFIUS for inbound investments, and said OFAC is better suited to prevent China from benefiting from sensitive American investments.
DOJ’s National Security Division this week announced the appointment of Ian Richardson as the agency’s first chief counsel for corporate enforcement and Christian Nauvel as the new deputy chief counsel for corporate enforcement. They will oversee the division’s investigation and prosecution of national security-related corporate crime, DOJ said, and are a part of the agency’s efforts to add more than 25 new prosecutors to investigate and prosecute sanctions and export control violations (see 2303070023).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four people and three entities operating as “key” Hezbollah operatives and financial facilitators in South America and Lebanon. The designations target Amer Mohamed Akil Rada, Samer Akil Rada, Mahdy Akil Helbawi and Ali Ismail Ajrouch. The agency also sanctioned Venezuela-based BCI Technologies C.A., which is managed by Rada; Colombia-based Zangan S.A.S., managed by Helbawi; and Lebanon-based Black Diamond SARL, owned by Ajrouch.
The Commerce Department is looking into whether a Chinese-made chip powering Huawei's latest smartphone was made or acquired through means that violated U.S. export controls, an agency official said this week. “We are working to obtain more information on the character and composition of the purported 7nm chip” included in Huawei’s new Mate 60 Pro+ smartphone, the official said. The Chinese telecommunications company announced the new phone during Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s trip to China earlier this month.