TradeStation Group, the U.S.-based parent company of an online securities and brokerage firm, said it may have violated U.S. sanctions. The company on June 29 submitted a voluntary self-disclosure to the Office of Foreign Assets Control after discovering its platform may have been accessed from a sanctioned country or by a sanctioned entity or person, TradeStation said in a July 1 SEC filing. The disclosure included information on a “nominal percentage of its customers’ compliance with OFAC’s comprehensive territorial-based sanctions,” the company said.
The U.S. will ramp up sanctions pressure against Iran if it doesn’t return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, said Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. Sullivan also said Iran is preparing to send weapons technology to Russia in violation of international export controls.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated Obed Christian Sepulveda Portillo for the trafficking of high-caliber firearms from the U.S. to Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful drug organizations, according to a July 11 news release.
Canada on July 9 announced more sanctions against Russia due to its war in Ukraine, including new restrictions on Russia’s oil, gas and chemical sectors. Canada will ban Canadians from providing certain services that contribute to the “production of goods made by these sectors,” the country said, including restrictions on land and pipeline transport services and activities relating to the manufacturing of metals, transport, computer, electronic and electrical equipment. Canadian companies will have 60 days from the day the sanctions take effect to end contracts with the affected Russian industries.
A U.S. appeals court on July 8 affirmed a 2020 District of Columbia court ruling dismissing FedEx’s lawsuit against the Bureau of Industry and Security, saying the shipping company failed to show BIS acted outside its authority. The court also rejected FedEx’s claims that the agency was using the Export Administration Regulations to apply overly burdensome liability standards on carriers and penalize them even when carriers do not have knowledge of violations.
The U.K. issued a General License permitting relevant parties to perform activities to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance relating to the war in Ukraine, in Crimea and non-Ukraine controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The license indefinitely permits such activity and also says any money used to carry out such humanitarian activity can't be from funds owned, held or controlled by a sanctioned individual or entity.
The Census Bureau soon will launch a fatal alert for filers in the Automated Export System if they are exporting a controlled item without a license, the agency said in a July 7 email to industry. Beginning July 13, the new feature won't allow export filings to proceed if they incorrectly list License Requirement NLR (No License Required) for shipments that require a license under the Export Administration Regulations.
The joint alert issued last month by the Commerce and Treasury departments (see 2206280056) puts companies “on notice” about the types of red flags they should be monitoring for potential sanctions and export control evasion tactics, Lewis Brisbois said in a July alert. While the red flags in the alert aren’t exhaustive, companies should consider them alongside “all surrounding facts and circumstances” when filing a suspicious activity report to Treasury, the firm said, or while complying with U.S. export restrictions. “At the very least, ‘covered entities’ will need to conduct a fact-intensive analysis on these potential 'red flag' indicators to ensure compliance with U.S. law,” the firm said.
It’s unclear whether the Bureau of Industry and Security's decision to stop differentiating between emerging and foundational technologies under the Export Control Reform Act (see 2205200017) will have any real impact on export controls, law firms said. Torres Trade Law said this month that “only time will tell” if the change allows BIS to impose the controls more quickly, but companies should closely monitor the pace of upcoming restrictions, especially if they’re dealing in “cutting-edge technologies.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security on July 7 sent an interim final rule for interagency review that will clarify how export controls are applied in the context of international standards-setting bodies. The rule will specifically authorize certain items and “releases of technology” to entities on the Entity List “for standards setting or development in standards organizations,” BIS said.