China this week criticized the U.S. decision to increase export controls on technology destined to the country (see 2210070049) and add more Chinese entities to the Unverified List (see 2210070006), calling the moves “a typical practice of technological bullying.” China’s Ministry of Commerce said “it not only violates the spirit of cooperation between the two sides and ignores the facts of cooperation between the two sides, but also seriously hinders the normal economic and trade exchanges between Chinese and American enterprises,” according to an unofficial translation of a statement.
U.K. businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was indicted Oct. 11 for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, wire fraud connected to funding Deripaska's American properties and working to expatriate Deripaska's U.S.-based artwork through misrepresentations, DOJ announced. The charges stem from the work of Task Force KleptoCapture, the law enforcement group tasked with enforcing the U.S.'s sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
A new bill in the Senate and House could impose one-year bans on the export of certain weapons and defense items to Saudi Arabia. The bill, announced this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., would suspend all new license applications for exports of “any defense articles proposed or submitted to Congress” pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, including “direct munitions containers; weapon support and support equipment; spare and repair parts; United States Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistical support services; and other related elements of logistical and program support.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security's new sweeping set of export controls (see 2210070049) will “likely damage” the Chinese semiconductor and advanced computing industries and the U.S. and foreign companies that sell to those sectors, ArentFox said in an Oct. 10 alert. “While that was clearly the point of the new rule, we are expecting total chaos for a while,” the law firm said, adding that there is a “lot to unpack” in the 139-page rule.
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Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex was fined more than $24 million by the Office of Foreign Assets Control this week for violating U.S. sanctions. OFAC announced the fine alongside a similar penalty by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which fined the company more than $29 million for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. The OFAC and FinCEN settlements are the two agencies’ first parallel enforcement actions, OFAC’s largest-ever virtual currency enforcement action and the agency's largest fine since April 2019.
The U.K. on Oct. 6 amended a Russia-related General License covering "basic needs, routine holding and maintenance and the payment of legal fees," the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. The amendment alters the license to "allow any payments in connection with the Insolvency Proceedings of VTB Capital plc and its UK subsidiaries."
The European Commission updated its FAQs on the import, purchase and transfer of listed goods related to certain energy-related products to third countries from Russia. The commission said that only some goods shall be allowed to be transferred to third countries to ensure energy security goods, and these include energy products falling under CN codes 4401 (fuel wood) and 4402 (charcoal) and all the items listed in Annex XXII (coal and related products). EU sanctions will not target the trade in agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilizers, between Russia and third countries, the FAQs said.
The EU Parliament Oct. 6 called for the EU to impose sanctions on Iranian officials following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and the subsequent violence committed against protesters after her death. Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman, was killed while in custody of Iran's "morality police" after violating the country's strict veiling laws. She died in a Tehran hospital three days after suffering injuries from physical abuse while in custody. "The EU must sanction Iranian officials involved in the regime’s repression," the parliament said. The U.S. and Canada have already designated individuals and entities linked to Amini's death and the later human rights violations committed following her passing (see 2209220029).
The State Department on Oct. 6 sent an interim final rule for interagency review that proposes to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to expand the definition of activities that are not exports, reexports, retransfers or temporary imports. The rule will propose to amend the ITAR by “specifying two additional activities.”