Japan sanctioned one individual over his actions threatening peace and security in Haiti, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Nov. 10, according to an unofficial translation. Japan imposed restrictions on Jimmy Cherizier, one of Haiti's "most influential gang leaders" and a former Haitian police officer, subjecting him to an asset freeze, according to an unofficial translation.
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in-person in Indonesia Nov. 14 to “discuss a range of regional and global issues,” the White House announced last week. The meeting will take place about a month after the U.S. announced new export licensing requirements designed to restrict China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors (see 2210070049).
Three U.S. citizens and Quadrant Magnetics were charged with wire fraud, violating the Arms Export Control Act and smuggling goods relating to their participation in an illegal scheme to ship export-controlled defense-related technical data to China, DOJ announced. They also allegedly supplied DOD with Chinese-origin rare earth magnets for aviation systems and military items, DOJ said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued Russia-related General License 53, which authorizes transactions necessary for the "compensation" of employees of diplomatic or consular missions of the Russian government. The authorization does not cover debit to an account owned by the Russian Central Bank, the National Wealth Fund of Russia or the Russian Ministry of Finance. OFAC also published new frequently asked question 1096, which explains how the authorization applies to transactions related to Russian missions located both in or outside the U.S. The license "authorizes the payment of salaries to employees of Russian missions that may otherwise be prohibited by Directive 4," OFAC said, including payments payment originated by the Russian Finance Ministry from a non-blocked Russian bank. Directive 4, issued by OFAC in February, blocks transfers of assets to or on behalf of the Central Bank of Russia, the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Russian Ministry of Finance (see 2202280043).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a Russia-related general license authorizing certain energy-related transactions with several Russian companies. General License 8D, which replaces GL 8C (see 2206140036), authorizes the transactions through 12:01 a.m. EDT May 15, 2023. The license was previously scheduled to expire Dec. 5.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control’s redesignation of Tornado Cash last week (see 2211080050) may have been aimed at bolstering the agency’s legal standing against the virtual currency mixer, according to a Nov. 9 report from MoneyLaundering.com, a news site operated by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists.
The State Department plans to soon issue new export compliance guidance and has made progress updating its Part 130 process, senior agency official Mike Miller said. Miller, speaking during the Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary last week, also said the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is working more closely with the Commerce Department on end-use checks, and said the agency has seen an uptick in violations involving illegal exports of technical data.
The U.K.'s High Court of Justice in a Nov. 4 judgment adjourned a trial between VTB Commodities Trading and Petraco Oil over the delivery of oil cargo, according to a Nov. 8 post on the EU Sanctions blog. The U.K. sanctioned VTB in February, leading it to submit an application for a license to pay legal fees for the proceeding. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation failed to process the application eight months after submission, leading VTB to apply to adjourn the trial that was set for May, given that the company could not make the legal payments. In the meantime, OFSI issued a General License over the provision of legal services under the Russia sanctions regime. The High Court considered the license, then adjourned the trial. The court said the trial should be resolved "in part because of the time required to obtain OFSI licences," ordering VTB to apply to OFSI for a license to cover adverse costs liability in the proceeding and to cover other costs not covered by the General License.
Russia's largest ports have seen freight volumes tank due to the EU's sanctions on Moscow, according to research from Vincent Stamer, an expert at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The St. Petersburg port saw an 85% plummet in container throughput in 2022 vs. 2021, with Stamer saying few containers are arriving at what used to be Russia's busiest port, Bloomberg reported. The Kiel Institute, a German economic think tank, showed that Russia brought in 24% fewer goods per month from June through August, compared with the same period last year, leaving a $4.5 billion monthly import gap.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection related to “miscellaneous licensing responsibilities and enforcement.” The collection involves various activities that “do not involve submission of documents to the BIS but instead involve exchange of documents among parties in the export transaction to ensure that each party understands its obligations under U.S. law,” the agency said in a notice released this week. Other activities involve writing export control statements on shipping documents or reporting “unforeseen changes in shipping and disposition of exported commodities.” The activities are needed by the Office of Export Enforcement and CBP to document exports and enforce the Export Administration Regulations. Comments are due Jan. 9.