Arif Ugur, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and two years of supervised release for scheming to illegally export defense technical data to manufacturers in Turkey in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, DOJ announced Dec. 15. The technical data related to the "fraudulent manufacturing of parts and components used by the U.S. military" -- parts the Defense Department later found to be "substandard and unsuitable for use by the military."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Dec. 16 removed 19 entries from its Specially Designated Nationals list. The entries were sanctioned for counter-narcotics reasons and include people with entities with addresses in Mexico and Colombia. The primary goal for sanctions is behavioral change and the delisted individuals demonstrated a change in behavior and circumstances, a Treasury spokesperson said Dec. 16, adding that the delisted persons are no longer "engaged in sanctionable activities." The spokesperson also said most of the companies deleted from the SDN List are "now defunct."
A recent joint alert by the Commerce and Treasury departments has been a boon to industry and the government, and has given export control officers more leads to track down potential Russia violations, said Matthew Axelrod, Commerce’s top export enforcement official. Axelrod said the alert has been so successful that the two agencies are hoping to publish another one next year.
The U.K. adopted new financial and trade sanctions against Russia Dec. 15, barring the provision of trust services to, or for the benefit of, a designated individual or entity, and the provision of new trust services to or for the benefit of, a person connected with Russia. The restrictions further amend existing sanctions on securities or money market instruments and loans and credit arrangements to a person linked to Russia, as well as suspend the Bank of England's duty to "make a decision in respect of a notification of third-country resolution action in respect of designated persons or persons owned or controlled by designated persons."
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed the temporary denial order for Belavia Belarusian Airlines, Belarus' state-owned national airline. BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in June (see 2206160015), barring it from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The agency renewed the denial order for another 180 days on Dec. 13 after finding Belavia continues to illegally operate aircraft subject to the EAR, including for flights between Russia, Belarus, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 18 entities related to Russia's financial services sector, according to a Dec. 15 press release. The State Department also issued a set of Russia sanctions, primarily targeting oligarch Vladimir Potanin, three members of his immediate family and his business network, the department said in a Dec. 15 press release.
The State Department is proposing to expand the definition of activities that are not exports, reexports, retransfers or temporary imports by adding two new entries, the agency said in a notice released Dec. 15. One new entry would be the “taking of defense articles outside a previously approved country by the armed forces of a foreign government” or U.N. personnel on a “deployment or training exercise,” the State Department said. The second entry would be a foreign defense item that enters the U.S. but is subsequently exported under a license, provided it has not been “modified, enhanced, upgraded, or otherwise altered or improved or had a U.S.-origin defense article integrated into it.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security added a host of Chinese and Russian entities to the Entity List, including top Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. and leading Chinese artificial intelligence firms, the agency said in a pair of notices released Dec. 15. The new restrictions on the Chinese firms are aimed at “severely restricting” China’s ability to leverage AI, advanced computing and other commercial technologies for its military or human rights abuses, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said. The agency added the Russian entities to the list after it was unable to complete end-use checks. The changes took effect Dec. 16.
A bipartisan bill could place new sanctions on Huawei and other Chinese technology companies by adding them to the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List. The bill, introduced in the Senate this week by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Rick Scott, R-Fla., would impose financial sanctions on “untrustworthy Chinese 5G producers who engage in economic espionage against the United States,” the lawmakers said, and “effectively freeze them” from using the U.S. financial system. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., introduced a companion bill in the House.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation notified industry this week that it has removed an expired general license that authorized certain energy payments related to Russia’s Gazprombank. The license took effect in April and expired in October.