The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined Toll Holdings, a Melbourne, Australia-based international freight and logistics company, more than $6.13 million for nearly 3,000 violations of multiple U.S. sanctions programs. OFAC said Toll received illegal payments connected to sea, air and rail shipments through multiple highly sanctioned countries, including North Korea, Iran and Syria. The transactions included sanctioned Iranian airline Mahan Air (see 2111190006) and Iran-based Hafiz Darya Shipping Lines.
The State Department recently approved up to an additional $800 million in emergency military assistance to Ukraine, it said in a notice released April 25. The notice directs the drawdown of defense articles, services and military training from the Defense Department. The State Department said the aid could not have been met under the authority of the Arms Export Control Act or “any other provision of law.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on April 22 updated the entry for North Korean cyber-criminal group Lazarus Group. OFAC updated the Lazarus Group entry to include "three additional virtual currency wallet addresses" linked to the entity, an agency spokesperson said April 22. "Identification of these wallets will make clear to other VC actors that by transacting with them, they risk exposure to U.S. sanctions," the spokesperson said.
The EU added new names to its Russian and North Korean sanctions regimes. Under the EU's sanctions regime relating to the Russian annexation of Crimea, the European Council April 21 added businessmen Serhiy Vitaliyovich Kurchenko and Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin to its list of individuals subject to a travel ban and asset freeze. Kurchenko took control of various metallurgical, chemical and energy plants in the separatist-held areas of Crimea. Prigozhin founded and serves as the unofficial leader of the Russian-based mercenary entity the Wagner Group, the council said.
Although EU export controls and sanctions on Russia don’t necessarily apply to Chinese-based subsidiaries of EU companies, European businesses should keep in mind that they can’t use their Chinese business to circumvent the restrictions, law firm CMS said in an April 21alert. Chinese subsidies are “incorporated under Chinese law” and “not, in principle, bound by the measures,” but their EU parent companies can’t use them to evade any “obligations that apply to the EU parent company,” the firm said. This includes “delegating to them decisions which run counter to the sanctions, or by approving such decisions by the Chinese subsidiary.”
Australia on April 22 announced another round of sanctions against Russia, designating 147 more people for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions target 144 Russian senators, two daughters of President Vladimir Putin and one daughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov. Australia said it now imposes sanctions on nearly 750 people and entities for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week fined Colorado-based Newmont Corp. and Florida-based Chisu International Corp. after the two mining companies bought Cuban-origin “explosives and explosive accessories” from a third-party vendor. The agency announced a $141,442 settlement with Newmont and a $45,908 settlement with Chisu for violating the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.
Keeping pace with the multinational sanctions targeting Russia remains a difficult task for lawyers and businesses, even some two months after its invasion of Ukraine, lawyers at Crowell & Moring said during an April 21 webinar hosted by the firm.
Aviastar, the Russian cargo airline made subject to a temporary denial order last week (see 2204210043), continued to illegally fly multiple U.S.-origin aircraft after the U.S. in March announced restrictions on those flights (see 2203020072), including to China, the Bureau of Industry and Security said in its April 21 order. Flights included trips from the Russian cities of Novosibirsk and Abakan to the Chinese cities of Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhengzhou. All the trips, which took place April 5 to April 12, required approved license applications.
The EU is aiming for a sixth sanctions package next month, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Washington, but there is still not unanimity among the 27 countries on how to treat Russian oil and on what to do about Sberbank.