Charles McGonigal, a former senior FBI official, pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions against Russia, DOJ announced Aug. 15. McGonigal was charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in January after DOJ said he “provided services” to sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in exchange for payments, including by agreeing to investigate a Russian oligarch who was a rival of Deripaska (see 2301230030 and 2308080030).
The U.S. this week sanctioned three entities for their involvement in a sanctions evasion network that facilitates arms deals between Russia and North Korea. The designations target Limited Liability Company Verus, Defense Engineering Limited Liability Partnership and Versor S.R.O, which all have ties to sanctioned Slovakian businessman Ashot Mkrtychev. The Treasury Department said Mkrtychev is the president of Versor, founder and owner of Verus and the sole director of Defense Engineering, and has worked with Russian and North Korean officials for “potential plans” to transfer more than two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions to Russia in exchange for various raw materials and commodities to North Korea.
Compliance departments need to be increasingly “creative” to catch goods or transactions that may be tied to Russian sanctions evasion, an industry official and former Treasury Department official said this week, especially as the U.S. and its allies ramp up enforcement. They also said compliance is growing more complex, particularly for financial institutions, which must meet expanding government expectations outlined in joint alerts recently published by the Commerce and Treasury departments.
The U.S. removed sanctions from two former board members of a Russian state-owned bank after both argued they didn’t meet the criteria for placement on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List. The sanctions removals, made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control late last month, came after Russian nationals Elena Titova and Andrey Golikov, in separate complaints, sued the U.S. government over their designations, accusing it of sanctioning them on “no factual basis” and “unnecessarily” delaying delisting decisions.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with recent sanctions moves from the European Council regarding Iran's support for Russia's war in Ukraine, serious human rights abuses and the situation in Myanmar.
The U.K.'s Export Control Joint Unit on Aug. 11 issued a new general license under its Russia sanctions regime permitting the provision of certain legal advice and services. The license authorizes legal advisory services to any person or entity related to whether an "act or a proposed act complies with" sanctions, export and import controls on Russia. Parties may now provide legal advisory services surrounding the risk of "punitive measures" concerning sanctions on Russia, any Russian laws that "have as their object or effect the frustration of any laws specified [in any restrictive measures] including sanctions, export and import controls or other restrictive measures imposed by Russia"; or "any criminal law imposed by any jurisdiction."
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the Kyrgyz Republic to “swiftly” investigate allegations that the country’s government has helped Russia evade international sanctions. In an Aug 8 letter to President Sadyr Japarov, Menendez said Kyrgyzstan has “dramatically expanded its import-export business with Russia” since Russia launched its war against Ukraine, and said Kyrgyzstan’s “lack of enforcement or worse -- complicit facilitation of trade with Russia in products that implicate sanctions, such as drones, aircraft parts, weapon accessories, and circuitry -- is reportedly enabling Russia to evade international sanctions.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week issued a new set of Russia sanctions, designating four members of Russia’s “financial elite” and a Russian business association. The sanctions target Petr Olegovich Aven, Mikhail Maratovich Fridman, German Borisovich Khan and Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev, along with the Russian Association of Employers the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), a Russian technology industry organization.
Canada this week announced a new set of sanctions against Belarus for the Alexander Lukashenko regime’s role in the country’s “fraudulent” 2020 presidential election. The designations target nine people and seven entities, including people “complicit in Russia’s ongoing” war against Ukraine, government officials and military manufacturing and technology companies. The U.S. announced new designations against Belarus this week (see 2308090025).
The Moscow Arbitration Court in an Aug. 1 order froze shares of companies owned by Goldman Sachs Group, worth around $36 million, after Russian bank Otkritie filed a lawsuit against the U.S. banking giant, the Financial Times reported. State-owned Otkritie said Goldman refused to fulfill $6.4 million in debt obligations under derivatives deals between the two banks. Goldman said it was not able to settle the debt due to sanctions set against the Russian bank, FT reported.