The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a final rule for interagency review March 8 related to its new export controls over certain cybersecurity items (see 2110200036). BIS in January delayed the effective date for the rule to March 7 (see 2201110025) after receiving feedback from industry, which said the new controls should be tweaked so they don’t impede certain activities in the cybersecurity sector, including information sharing and exports to certain government end-users (see 2112130028). BIS said last month it was planning to make minor revisions to the rule to address some public comments (see 2202100026).
The EU announced new sanctions targeting the Belarusian financial sector to expand on existing restrictions on the country in response to its role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The new restrictions apply to three banks -- Belagroprombank, Bank Dabrabyt and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, along with their Belarusian subsidiaries -- and keep them using SWIFT, the interbank messaging service.
The EU ambassador to Washington, Stavros Lambrinidis, said that settling trade irritants between the U.S. and Europe and setting up the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council made it easy to get a unified front on export controls done quickly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The TTC "ensured every player that’s important in this field could get on the phone and get it done," he said during a March 9 webinar hosted by the World Trade Center in Washington, D.C., and the Washington Intergovernmental Professional Group.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order March 9 that will require several agencies to study how cryptocurrency can be used to evade sanctions. The order, part of a “priority effort” underway by the administration to counter illegal uses of virtual currencies, comes amid concerns from lawmakers that Russia could turn to cryptocurrency to evade U.S. and global financial restrictions (see 2203030047).
B. Stephanie Siegmann, former National Security chief for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, joined Hinckley Allen as a partner in its International Trade & Global Security practice, the firm announced. Siegmann worked on investigations into violations of export control laws, sanctions, intellectual property, money laundering and national security.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added one entry to its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime and amended and corrected entires under the Iran (Nuclear) sanctions list in a pair of notices March 8. Under the ISIL sanctions list, OFSI added Khatiba Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad, a terrorist organization operating under the Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, which operates mainly in Syria. Under the Iran sanctions regime, OFSI amended the entries for Mohammad Hejazi and the Passive Defence Organisation, and it corrected the entries for Jelvesazan and the Centre for Innovation and Technology Cooperation.
The U.N. Security Council on March 7 added one entry to its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida sanctions list. Sanctions now apply to the terrorist group Khatiba al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, which operates in Syria, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Afghanistan and Ukraine. The State Department sanctioned the group earlier this week (see 2203070059).
Australia imposed new sanctions against a range of Russia’s “propagandists,” military officials and entities for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country’s foreign ministry announced March 8. The sanctions target the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and six senior military officials and an additional 11 financial institutions “of economic significance to Russia,” including the country’s central bank. Australia also sanctioned another 10 people that help promote “pro-Kremlin propaganda to legitimize Russia’s invasion.”
The EU launched a Sanctions Whistleblower Tool to aid the reporting of past, ongoing or planned sanctions violations. "It responds to the Commission's ambition to fully support the effective implementation and enforcement of EU sanctions," the commission said March 4. "The EU has more than 40 sanctions regimes in place and their effectiveness relies on their proper implementation and enforcement, including in thwarting circumvention and evasion of sanctions." The platform was announced by the European Commission in January 2021.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an alert to financial institutions to be vigilant against efforts to evade the sanctions and other restrictions implemented against Russia. FinCEN warned that all financial institutions identify and report suspicious activity associated with potential sanctions evasion, and conduct customer due diligence. The alert highlighted the following activities as possible evasion activities requiring higher scrutiny: