Recent Chinese sanctions against American drone-maker Skydio will limit the company’s battery supply, the firm’s CEO said this week, calling the restrictions an “attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers.”
New U.S. guidance for the ocean shipping industry outlines several example scenarios of foreign shipowners, shipping companies, tanker vessels and others looking to evade sanctions. The guidance, issued Oct. 31 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, is designed to help ocean shipping industry officials recognize new or common “fact patterns that may be indicative of sanctions evasion,” OFAC said, or help them address common due diligence issues while trying to comply with U.S. sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five people and two companies for their ties to La Linea, which OFAC said is a “violent” Mexican drug trafficking group that moves fentanyl and other drugs into the U.S.
The Financial Action Task Force recently updated its list of jurisdictions with “deficiencies” in combating terrorism financing, weapons proliferation and other sanctions-related issues, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said Oct 30. The FATF added Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and Lebanon to its list of "Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring" and removed Senegal from the list. The FATF’s list of "High-Risk Jurisdictions Subject to a Call for Action" remains the same and still lists Iran, North Korea and Myanmar.
The EU, the U.K. and Canada this week announced new, coordinated sanctions against Myanmar to target people and entities supplying controlled items to the military or for their involvement in human rights violations in the country.
The U.K. on Oct. 28 designated three entities and three people that it said are working in Russia's information, communications and digital technologies sector, including Moscow-based firms Structura, the Social Design Agency and Ano Dialog. The U.K. also sanctioned Ilya Andreevich Gambashidze, director of Structura and the Social Design Agency; Andrey Naumovich Perla, program director of the Social Design Agency; and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tupikin, the general director of Structura.
An updated general license issued by the U.K. this week increases the cap on fees that can be paid to British law firms by parties subject to Russia-related sanctions, clarifies how the license applies to in-house lawyers, and more.
Japan sanctioned Luckson Elan, a leader of Haiti’s Gran Grif gang, and Prophane Victor, a former member of Haiti's parliament, for actions that “threaten peace in Haiti,” according to an unofficial translation of an Oct. 24 notice. The move comes after both the U.S. and U.N. Security Council sanctioned both earlier this year (see 2409260002 and 2410010010).
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated guidance this week to clarify how it will implement a new regulation, which took effect in June, that makes it illegal for a sanctioned person to own a U.K. company, act as a director for that company or otherwise be “involved in a company’s promotion, formation or management.” The guidance covers these new “director disqualification” sanctions (see 2407090027), including the possible penalties for violators and how the U.K. may issue licenses to grant certain exceptions under the measure.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Mirghani Idris Suleiman for helping to procure weapons for the Sudanese Armed Forces, which is warring with the Rapid Support Forces and causing violence that has led to a humanitarian and human rights crisis in the country. OFAC said Suleiman serves as the director general of Defense Industries System, the SAF’s primary weapons production and procurement arm. OFAC sanctioned the procurement director for the Rapid Support Forces earlier this month (see 2410080018).