August 29, 2024

/KHARON UPDATES

Leveraging Kharon to Address Russian Sanctions Evasion

Join us for a 30-minute session where we’ll analyze case studies and answer your questions about Kharon’s industry-leading data and solutions for identifying and mitigating circumvention risk. [Register Here]

Mastering the New Regulatory Wave: Best Practices for Global Sanctions Screening

Tune in to CSI’s webinar, where Kharon expert Olivia Valone will explore the latest market trends and current events driving the creation of new sanctions lists with CSI Compliance Analyst, Amber Goodrich. [Register Here]

/THIS WEEK ON THE KHARON BRIEF

‘We Will Not Stop Until Russia Has Nowhere to Turn’: 7 Takeaways From the Latest US Actions Targeting Russia

Last week, the U.S. government announced a significant package of new sanctions and export controls aimed at weakening Russia’s military-industrial base, manufacturing sector, and the global web of actors that continue to help the Kremlin evade sanctions. Kharon focused on seven key takeaways from the latest measures. [Read More]

/MEDIA ROUNDUP

SANCTIONS        

The U.S. targeted nearly 400 individuals and entities both in Russia and outside its borders—including in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East—whose products and services enable Russia to sustain its war effort and evade sanctions. [U.S. Treasury] [U.S. State]

The U.S. is warning countries trading with Russia that they risk secondary sanctions if they allow Russian banks to set up local branches to finance the supply of goods for Vladimir Putin’s war machine. [FT]

A sanctioned liquefied natural gas tanker appeared to be transferring its Russian cargo to another ship in the Mediterranean Sea, a sign of the lengths to which Moscow is going to circumvent U.S. actions. [Bloomberg]

The Republic of Palau temporarily suspended the registration of three liquefied natural gas carriers that were recently sanctioned by the U.S. over links to Russian gas exports. [Bloomberg]

An investment fund linked to the sons of two sanctioned Russian oligarchs played a role in the acquisition of a popular social media platform. [EUToday]

Beijing urged the U.S. to “stop its wrong practices” after Chinese companies were included on a sanctions list that’s designed to target supply chains feeding Russia and hobble its wartime economy. [Bloomberg]

The U.S. Department of State sanctioned an Israeli individual and a nongovernmental organization for engaging in or providing material support for violent activities in the West Bank. [U.S. State]

The EU foreign policy chief said he has asked the bloc's members if they want to impose sanctions on some Israeli ministers for "hate messages" against Palestinians that he said broke international law. [Reuters]

New Zealand has deployed a ship to monitor North Korea’s maritime sanctions evasion activities for the first time, adding to growing international efforts to rein in the smuggling activities fueling Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. [NK News]

A U.N. Security Council committee is considering sanctioning two generals with Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for threatening the country's peace, security, or stability, including through violence and human rights abuses. [Reuters]

COMPLIANCE + ENFORCEMENT        

FinCEN issued two final rules to help safeguard the residential real estate and investment adviser sectors from illicit finance. [U.S. FinCEN]

FinCEN reminded financial institutions to monitor for and report suspicious transactional activity related to the illicit fentanyl supply chain. [U.S. FinCEN]

New York’s financial regulator imposed a USD 35 million fine against a Nordic financial services group over significant deficiencies in its anti-money laundering programs at its branches in the Baltics and Denmark. [WSJ]

The U.S. BIS imposed a civil penalty of USD 44,750 against a global manufacturer of portable lighting products to resolve alleged violations of the antiboycott regulations. [U.S. BIS]

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a criminal complaint charging a Hungarian national with conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin radio communications technology to Russian government end users without a license. [U.S. Justice]

U.S. lawmakers requested that the U.S. Department of Defense immediately place an electric vehicle battery company with deep ties to the Chinese military on the Section 1260H list. [U.S. Select Committee on the CCP]

In a rare move, U.S. trade officials met with South Korean business leaders to address concerns over the impact of U.S. sanctions on China’s advanced industries. [Chosun Daily]

TRADE CONTROLS + SUPPLY CHAIN        

The U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP requested that the U.S. Department of Commerce examine whether two UAV manufacturers in the U.S. and Hong Kong are operating on behalf of a major Chinese drone company on the BIS Entity List. [U.S. Select Committee on the CCP]

The U.S. BIS took action to further restrict the supply of both U.S.-origin and U.S.-branded items to Russia and Belarus by expanding existing export control rules and making 123 additions to the Entity List. [U.S. BIS]

The Irish government commenced the Control of Exports Act 2023, which was designed to modernize and strengthen Ireland’s export control framework for dual-use and military items. [Irish Government]

In response to export controls that have prevented Chinese companies from directly importing U.S.-developed AI chips, Chinese artificial intelligence developers are working with brokers to access computing power overseas. [WSJ]

RESEARCH SECURITY         

The leader of a Washington-based scientific society and the head of its foundation have left the group amid investigations into its decades-long alliance with sanctioned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. [Bloomberg]

The U.S. Defense Department, NASA, and other government agencies funded research that led to more than 1,000 U.S. patents for China-based inventors since 2010, including in sensitive fields such as biotechnology and semiconductors. [Reuters]

HUMAN RIGHTS        

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has detained nearly USD 43 million in shipments of electronics equipment from India since October under a 2022 law banning goods made with forced labor, representing a new focus for the trade enforcement agency. [Reuters]

CRYPTO + CYBER        

The U.S. Department of State and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea co-hosted a joint symposium on protecting the virtual asset industry as part of ongoing efforts to curb North Korea’s attempts to earn revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. [U.S. State]

Argentine authorities arrested a Russian national for laundering stolen cryptocurrency from a USD 100 million North Korean heist. [NK News]

Russia is close to starting trials of cryptocurrency exchanges and the use of digital tokens for cross-border transactions to help ease payment difficulties for companies in the country resulting from international sanctions. [Bloomberg]