Andrea Gacki is leaving her role as director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control to become the new director of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the agency announced July 13. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Gacki helped guide OFAC through “major world events,” including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and “expertly” deployed financial sanctions, industry guidance and enforcement actions “to hold accountable those who threaten our national security and the international financial system.”
Switzerland this week dropped two people from its Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions regime, both of whom were originally sanctioned for committing "serious" human rights abuses in the country. Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and Kalev Mutondo were delisted after the EU also delisted the pair following a General Court ruling annulling their listing, which said that the European Council did not establish a sufficient link between the men and the situation in the DRC (see 2306200023).
The EU on July 13 removed import restrictions on certain food from Japan that had been in place since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident. The European Council said the move follows "positive results from controls done on the products" by the Japanese government and EU member states. Following 2011, the bloc tested food products for radioactivity pre-export. By 2021, the restrictions were limited to "wild mushrooms, some fish species and wild edible plants." The U.K. lifted similar restrictions last year (see 2206290022).
President Joe Biden this week renewed a national emergency authorizing certain sanctions related to hostage-takers and those who wrongfully detain U.S. nationals abroad. The sanctions were renewed for another year from July 19. The Treasury Department earlier this week issued rules implementing the Hostages and Wrongful Detention Sanctions Regulations, which were ordered by the president in an executive order last year (see 2307100009 and 2207190045).
The State Department’s recently published spring 2023 regulatory agenda continues to mention rules that will update export controls for items on the U.S. Munitions List and make other changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Adam Hensel-Briscoe, former official at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Squire Patton as a principal in its Washington, D.C., government investigations and white collar practice. Joining the firm from Akin Gump, Hensel-Briscoe worked at OFAC for over 12 years, serving as assistant director of the Office of Global Targeting's Narcotics, Crime, Africa and Western Hemisphere Division. His practice will center on "international trade, economic and trade sanctions laws, export control laws and other foreign policy and national security trade and investment controls," the firm said.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, in a July 12 notice, added six entities to its Sudan sanctions regime. The entries are for Al Junaid Multi Activities Co., Defense Industries System, GSK Advance Company, Sudan Master Technology, Tradive General Trading and Zadna International Company for Investment. All were listed for their roles in threatening the security of Sudan due to their support for one of the parties in the conflict between factions of the military government.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, subpoenaed the State Department for “key documents” relating to the agency’s reported “obstruction of the use of national security tools” against China, his office said in a July 12 press release. McCaul signed the subpoena about two months after he originally requested the documents from the State Department, citing news reports that the agency held back sanctions and export controls against China in an effort to limit damage to the U.S.-China relationship (see 2305240041).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week deleted a range of entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List that were originally sanctioned for counter-narcotics reasons. The entries include people and entities based in Colombia. The agency didn’t release more information.
A new report by the Government Accountability Office examines the “illicit financial flows” supporting the Venezuelan government and U.S. efforts to disrupt those transactions, including through sanctions. Although U.S. agencies have “provided assistance to partner countries in the region to build their capacity to disrupt criminal activity” involving Venezuela, Treasury Department officials told the GAO that “the volume of illicit financial flows is overwhelming for many partners in the region.”