The Bureau of Industry and Security is still “developing” a rule that will expand the agency’s restrictions on certain activities that support foreign military, security or intelligence services, Hillary Hess, the agency’s regulatory policy director, said during a Sept. 12 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. The rule, hailed by one lawmaker as the “largest expansion of presidential export control authority in several years,” will implement a provision in the FY 2023 defense spending bill that will allow BIS to expand its U.S. persons controls to capture certain sensitive services to foreign intelligence agencies (see 2212210032).
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The Bureau of Industry and Security’s top export enforcement official this week urged customs brokers, forwarders and non-vessel operating common carriers to be more proactive in export compliance even though they may not always have the “primary” responsibility for ensuring goods comply with U.S. export licensing restrictions. Matthew Axelrod, the BIS assistant secretary for export enforcement, said those service providers should take steps to ensure they have maximum visibility into their clients and the goods they are shipping.
The EU added a FAQ to its Russia sanctions guidance covering the "import, purchase & transfer of listed goods." The questions ask if a Russian national can temporarily bring personal goods and vehicles into the EU for tourism reasons. The bloc said no, clarifying that its regulations bar the "purchase, import, or transfer, directly or indirectly, of goods as listed in Annex XXI to the Regulation if they originate in Russia or are exported from Russia." This ban includes cars under CN code 8703.
DOJ last week announced its "first-ever criminal resolution" involving a company that violated sanctions by facilitating the sale and transport of Iranian oil. The agency said the cargo -- more than 980,000 barrels of Iranian oil that was allegedly shipped by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- is now the subject of a civil forfeiture action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The forfeiture complaint alleges the oil is "subject to forfeiture based on U.S. terrorism and money laundering statutes," DOJ said Sept. 8.
A new House bill introduced last week could help facilitate exports of “high-performance” computers and other equipment to India. The Technology Exports to India Act, introduced by Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Andy Barr, R-Ky., would remove certain restrictions on the sale of U.S. digital computers and electronic assemblies to India, the lawmakers said. The bill comes as the U.S. tries to convince India to rescind its recently announced import restrictions on computers and various electronics (see 2308170028).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned 11 people involved in the Russia-based Trickbot cybercrime group, which has targeted the U.S. government and American companies, the agency said. The designations target Andrey Zhuykov, a senior administrator with the group, along with other key members Maksim Galochkin, Maksim Rudenskiy, Mikhail Tsarev, Dmitry Putilin, Maksim Khaliullin, Sergey Loguntsov, Vadym Valiakhmetov, Artem Kurov, Mikhail Chernov and Alexander Mozhaev.
Government officials from the U.S., Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the U.K. met last week to discuss Russia-related sanctions enforcement and efforts to “bolster ongoing oligarch asset forfeiture initiatives,” the Treasury Department said. The countries, part of the multilateral Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs Task Force, said they have completed an “initial effort to map and account for Russian sovereign assets” that are frozen and held in REPO member jurisdictions, the agency said, totaling about $280 billion.
Congress may want to consider modifying U.S. export control regulations given the changing assumptions about the pace of technological development and the obstacles that presents for government agencies, the Congressional Research Service said in a report this month. The 40-page report suggests the U.S. may seek to review the Export Control Reform Act, which was drafted with “embedded assumptions about the pace of technological development” that may no longer be true, the report said.
Suspicious activity reports recently filed with the U.S. government show nearly $1 billion worth of transactions over the last year may have had ties to Russia-related export control evasion, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a new report analyzing SAR trend data. The report -- issued as part of a joint effort between FinCen and the Bureau of Industry and Security to collect more leads for export enforcement agents -- highlights several evasion trends being reported by banks and other financial institutions, including what types of goods are most commonly being sought by sanctions evaders and which foreign countries those transactions most frequently involve.