Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Commerce Department could impose strict export controls, including through the Entity List, on Chinese companies that violate U.S. export restrictions against Russia, agency officials said this week.
The U.S.’s new Russia export controls could lead to a short-term spike in license applications, but volumes will likely taper off later this year as businesses divest from Russia, said Nazak Nikakhtar, a former senior U.S. export control official.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended three entries under its North Korea sanctions regime. The entries for Yong Chol Kim, vice chairman of the Workers Party of Korea; Kyong Hui Kim, a North Korean army general; and Yong Nam Kim, agent of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, were updated.
Joe Sery, former owner and CEO of San Diego-based Tungsten Heavy Powder & Parts, and his brother, Dror Sery, were arrested and charged with violating federal export laws by shipping defense products listed on the U.S. Munitions List without obtaining a proper export license, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California said March 4. The Sery brothers' alleged actions violated export laws under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The brothers are charged with conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., exportation of defense articles without a license and criminal forfeiture. The latter charge has a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine.
The U.S. has designated Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization. In a March 7 press release, the State Department announced that all property and interests in property of KTJ that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the group. Foreign institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate transactions on behalf of KTJ could also be subject to U.S. sanctions. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also added KTJ to the SDN list.
South Korea announced additional sanctions March 7 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to an unofficial translation. The South Korean government said it is joining the international community's sanctions moves by placing restrictions on Russia's Central Bank and sovereign wealth fund along with Rossiya Bank.
Several European countries not in the EU continued to follow the bloc's lead, imposing the sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the European Council said March 4 in a series of three notices. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Ukraine all imposed the slate of sanctions, which include restrictions on Russia's Central Bank and hundreds of individuals and entities. The council's notices announce the alignment of these countries on freezing Russian banks from SWIFT, the global interbank messaging system; sanctioning Russia's sovereign wealth fund; banning two Russian state-owned media outlets from broadcasting in the EU; and expanding sanctions to many Russian officials and key entities (see 2203020008).
The Biden administration is considering lifting some oil sanctions against Venezuela to help decrease oil prices that have risen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported March 6. U.S. officials met with Venezuelan officials in Caracas this past weekend to discuss allowing Venezuelan oil back into the open market, the report said. Under the proposal, the U.S. would ease its sanctions against Venezuela for a “limited period,” which would redirect Venezuelan oil exports out of an "opaque China-bound export network and back to Gulf Coast refiners that process the heavy crude Venezuela produces,” according to the report. The proposal would also help to isolate Russia from Venezuela, its closest South American ally. The White House didn’t comment.
South Korean officials said they plan to continue imposing "swift and effective" export controls against Russia following the addition of their country to the U.S.'s list of nations that align closely with the U.S.'s trade restrictions against Russia. South Korea was added to the list March 4, which excludes it from certain license requirements under the U.S.’s two recently issued foreign direct product rules (see 2202240069 and 2203040075). “Korea is closely aligned with the U.S. and the global coalitionto [impose] export control measures and economic sanctions against Russia's military aggression,” Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said in a March 7 news release emailed by the Commerce Department.