The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed the temporary denial order for Russia's Rossiya Airlines, saying the company has continued to illegally operate planes in violation of U.S. export controls, including on flights between Russia and Egypt and Russia and Uzbekistan. The agency renewed the denial order for one year from Nov. 8, part of a change the agency announced in August that allows it to renew certain orders for one year instead of the previous 180-day maximum (see 2308290029). BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in May 2022 (see 2205200008) and has renewed the order multiple times.
The U.S., Canada and other nations can make sanctions screening efforts by banks and other financial institutions more efficient by addressing certain privacy laws, said Stephen Alsace, global head of economic sanctions for the Royal Bank of Canada. If all financial institutions were able to share more information about certain transactions, it could reduce redundancies during the sanctions compliance process and allow payments to be screened and processed faster, Alsace said.
The U.K. added 29 entries to the Russia sanctions regime Nov. 8, targeting Russian gold refiners and producers as well as international networks supporting the country's gold, oil, finance and defense sectors. The country's National Crime Agency also issued a new alert to make financial institutions aware of how Russia is using gold to evade sanctions.
The Canadian government should release more sanctions guidance to lower the business uncertainty that has spiked since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and the implementation of Canada’s new deemed ownership rules in June, lawyers said at a conference this week. A Canadian official said the government is working on guidance but stressed that the wide scope of the country’s sanctions laws, particularly against Russia, is unlikely to change.
DOJ-Commerce Department Disruptive Technology Strike Force senior officials traveled to Ukraine last week to speak with Ukrainian officials about Russia-related export enforcement and ways the two sides can better share information. The delegation -- which included Matthew Axelrod, Commerce’s top export enforcement official, and Matthew Olsen, the head of DOJ’s National Security Division -- spoke about efforts to “stop the flow of sensitive technologies to aid the Russian war machine,” the Bureau of Industry and Security said in a readout of the meetings.
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Petitioning to be delisted from a sanctions regime has become increasingly difficult and often lacks transparency, both in the U.S. and Canada, trade lawyers from both countries said this week. Several lawyers, including a former high-ranking senior U.S. sanctions official, said designated people often aren’t given an adequate explanation for why they were sanctioned and therefore aren’t able to fairly challenge the basis for their designation.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a temporary denial order on Nov. 7 against seven people and three companies for orchestrating a scheme to illegally export millions of dollars worth of export-controlled dual-use electronics to Russia. BIS said the U.S.-origin items were bought by Russian procurement agents and transshipped through other countries before being delivered to Russian companies with ties to the country’s military.
The Bureau of Industry and Security and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week issued another set of export control evasion red flags for financial service firms along with a new key term that banks and others can include in their suspicious activity reports to FinCEN. The new term will “enable even more BIS investigative and Entity List actions against” people and companies looking to evade U.S. export controls, said Matthew Axelrod, BIS’ top export enforcement official.
Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs on Nov. 1 amended 224 entries under its Russia sanctions regime. The updates were for 181 people and 43 entities and, for many, gave more specific reasons for the listings. The changes took effect Nov. 2.