The State Department this week announced penalties on one person and four entities and their subsidiaries for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The agency in a notice said the parties transferred items subject to multilateral control lists that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The State Department barred them from making certain purchases of items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act and will suspend any current export licenses used by the entities. The agency also will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The restrictions will remain in place for two years from the July 19 effective date.

Two U.S. Navy servicemembers, Jinchao Wei and Wenheng Zhao, were arrested in California as part of two separate cases for "transmitting sensitive military information" to China, DOJ announced Aug. 3.

Fried Frank law firm last week released its 2023 International Traffic in Arms Regulations Enforcement Digest, providing a “legal and compliance practitioner's reference guide” on ITAR enforcement. The document includes an overview of recent and past ITAR penalties, including actions taken this year against American 3D printing company 3D Systems (see 2302270078) and U.S.-based telecommunications company VTA Telecom (see 2305310040). The document also includes a table of various enforcement actions, dating to 2001, grouped with the penalty issued in the case, the U.S. Munitions List Categories involved, the countries involved and the number of violations.

Despite some opposition from Democrats, the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week advanced multiple bills designed to ease technology sharing restrictions within the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership. Two bills would create new license exceptions for certain defense exports to Australia and the U.K., and another would authorize the sale of Virginia Class submarines to Australia to help the Biden administration implement AUKUS, a deal that commits the U.S. to delivering the submarines within the next decade (see 2303130035).

The State Department appointed Timothy Betts acting deputy assistant secretary for the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, according to DDTC’s personnel page, which was updated this month. Betts, who was previously the acting coordinator for counterterrorism and acting special envoy for the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, started in the new role in May, according to his LinkedIn page. Betts is the latest official to take over after the departure of Mike Miller in December, who left to become the deputy director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (see 2212120004). Miller had been temporarily replaced by Catherine Hamilton, DDTC’s licensing director. An agency spokesperson at the time said the “position will rotate among DDTC directorates office directors until a new permanent deputy assistant secretary is formally selected and announced."

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 for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Commerce Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Census Bureau, including new rules that will add more entities to the Entity List and finalize new export filing requirements.

The State Department’s recently published spring 2023 regulatory agenda continues to mention rules that will update export controls for items on the U.S. Munitions List and make other changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

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 for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The U.S. is currently drafting a list of technologies that will be covered by its new defense trade authorization, which will be used to expedite defense technology transfers under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. partnership. Although the new mechanism won’t require any new authorities from Congress, it’s designed to eventually be supplanted by broader revisions to U.S. defense trade regulations, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said this week.