March 23, 2023

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MEDIA ROUNDUP

SANCTIONS        

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated four entities and three individuals in Iran and Turkey for their involvement in the procurement of equipment, including European-origin engines of UAVs in support of Iran’s UAV and weapons programs. [U.S. Treasury]

The European Union sanctioned an additional eight individuals and one entity responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran. [EU]

The U.K. sanctioned 5 members of the Board of Directors of the IRGC Co-operative Foundation, an organization that funnels money into the Iranian regime's repression of protest in Iran which has seen more than 500 killed and tens of thousands imprisoned. [U.K.]

Russia is using a fleet of older, poorly insured tankers to sidestep Western sanctions on its fossil fuels, raising fears of a potentially catastrophic accident or oil spill as the Kremlin works to finance its invasion of Ukraine. [WaPo]

Russian companies have flooded their Kazakh partners in recent weeks with new requests to help them circumvent Western sanctions and import badly needed goods. [Reuters]

Italy's cabinet is expected to decide next week whether to use its anti-takeover powers to block the sale of Russia's Lukoil-owned refinery to a Cypriot private equity firm. [Reuters]

Turkey halted the transit of Western-sanctioned goods to Russia after a year of war in Ukraine and mounting U.S. and European pressure on Ankara for action. Companies were handed a list of banned foreign goods and instructed not to transship those to Russia beginning on March 1. [Reuters] 

The U.S. administration vowed to crack down on companies that sell critical technologies to Russia as part of its efforts to curtail the country’s war against Ukraine. But the continued flow of Chinese drones to the country explains why that will be hard. [NYT]

The United States will announce further sanctions against entities inside Myanmar in the coming days, a senior State Department official said. [Reuters]

COMPLIANCE + ENFORCEMENT        

A U.S. federal court unsealed two indictments charging multiple defendants with violations for their roles in separate schemes to procure and export U.S. technology to Iran between 2005 and 2013. [U.S. Justice]

A Bulgarian woman was charged by the U.S. Justice Department for her role in a multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency pyramid scheme “OneCoin,” which marketed and sold a fraudulent cryptocurrency by the same name through a global multi-level-marketing network. [U.S. Justice]

EXPORT CONTROLS + SUPPLY CHAIN        

One of the top priorities for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is to add more companies to a list for using forced labor in China's Xinjiang region, and to persuade like-minded countries to pursue enforcement regimes similar to the United States. [Reuters]

As more companies seek to move production away from China amid geopolitical tensions, many still find themselves depending on the expertise of Chinese workers, an invaluable resource developed in a country that has long been the "world's factory." [Nikkei Asia]

The U.S. Department of Commerce released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the guardrails included in the CHIPS Incentives Program to advance America’s technological and national security. [NIST]

CRYPTO        

Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, announced the reorganization of the National Superintendency of Crypto Assets. The administration claims the move is intended to protect the country’s citizens from the negative effects of economic sanctions, among other reasons. [Cointelegraph]

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released a report that aims to equip the private and public sectors with insights to prevent financial crime related to ransomware attacks. [FATF]