The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned seven people and 19 Mexican companies for their ties to a drug trafficking cartel, including Eduardo Pardo Espino, a fugitive of U.S. trafficking charges. OFAC said the people and companies have ties to a timeshare fraud led by the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which has been targeted by previous sanctions measures (see 2303020047, 2207110011|, [Ref:2206020077, 2110060017 and 2202180011).
The departments of Treasury and State this week sanctioned Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization, along with four of its senior officials, for their role in taking hostages and wrongfully detaining U.S. nationals. The sanctions are the first issued under the authority established last year by Executive Order 14078, which allows for sanctions against hostage-takers (see 2207190045).
Senior export control and sanctions officials with the U.S., the EU and the U.K. traveled to Kazakhstan this week to discuss countering Russia’s attempts at sanctions evasion, the Treasury Department said. The group -- which included Elizabeth Rosenberg, Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, and Matt Axelrod, the Bureau of Industry and Security's assistant secretary for export enforcement -- met with government officials in the country, along with businesses, to share information and “offer assistance to help facilitate compliance,” Treasury said.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the length of time the White House has been considering a set of outbound investment regulations without releasing a plan isn't "because we're lazy, or we're not doing the work," but because it's difficult to find a solution "that is sustainable and effective."
Nearly all fof the oil exported from Kozmino port in the Russian Pacific sold for above the $60 price cap during the first three months of 2023, indicating violations of the G-7 oil price cap on Russian crude, the Kyiv School of Economics Institute in Ukraine said in a study of trade and shipping data. The study also found the "continued and substantial involvement of G7/EU shipping service providers."
New York lawyer Robert Wise pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to make around $3.8 million in payments to maintain six real properties in the U.S. owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Wise pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit international money laundering and faces a maximum of five years in prison, DOJ said April 25. He also forfeited more than $3.7 million and agreed "to be satisfied" by a $210,441 payment.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a notice this week correcting several errors in its sanctions regulations. The changes correct a “typographical error” in the Iranian Transactions and two typographical errors in its Western Balkans Stabilization Regulations. OFAC also said the license incorporates one general license into the Western Balkans Stabilization Regulations. The changes take effect April 27.
The Treasury Department this week released its first-ever “de-risking strategy,” a set of findings and policy recommendations to address issues arising from banks that cut off business relationships with “broad categories of customers” rather than taking steps to analyze and manage those relationships. The report, mandated by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, said profits are the “primary factor” in financial institutions’ decisions to de-risk, including the sometimes high cost and challenging prospect of implementing a sanctions compliance program.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls initiated more end-use checks in FY 2022 compared with FY 2021 and saw an increase in in-person site visits due to loosened COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions. In its annual Blue Lantern report released this week -- which details the agency’s end-use monitoring efforts on export-controlled defense articles and services -- the agency said it began checks on 305 export authorizations or authorization requests, an uptick from the 281 checks it began in 2021 (see 2204180030).
NEW OREANS -- The Census Bureau and the State Department are working on a change that would require exporters to submit additional information in the Automated Export System when shipping items controlled under U.S. Munitions List Category XXI, said Omari Wooden, Census’ assistant division chief for trade outreach and regulations. Wooden said the change will be outlined in a proposed rule and could eventually lead to a fatal error in AES if not followed.