The Council of the European Union on May 31 added three entities and six people to its North Korea sanctions regime for "sanctions evasion activities" that could "generate funds for" the nation's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The entities are Hapjanggang Trading Corp., a subordinate to the North Korean Ministry of Rocket Industry; Korea Namgang Trading Corp., which expatriates North Korean workers to generate revenue for Pyongyang; and Eastern Stevedoring Co., which operates the terminals at the main container port of the Russian Vostochny Port. The EU also sanctioned Song Rim, Kim Chol Sok, Rim Yong Hyok, Kim Kyong Nam and An Se-Ho, who work for the North Korean government or North Korean companies, and Oleg Nikolaevich Kozhemyako, who played an "instrumental role" in the September 2023 visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Russia.
The Council of the European Union sanctioned six people and three entities from Iran for transferring unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine, the council announced May 31. The entities are Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a "central entity in the command chain of Iran's armed forces"; Kavan Electronics Behrad, an Iran-based UAV procurement firm; and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, which delivers Iranian UAVs. The council also listed Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani, along with a commander of the IRGC Qods Force and the head of the sanctioned Iranian Aviations Industries Organization. Sanctioned parties are subject to an asset freeze and travel ban.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation last week updated the entries for Tatiana Vladimirovna Evtushenkova, director of Redline Capital UK, and Dmitry Vladimirovich Konov, former general director at OOO Sibur, under its Russia sanctions regime. The agency also corrected the entries of three people under its Somalia sanctions regime: al-Shabaab leaders Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, Mohamed Mohamud Mire and Mohamed Omar Mohamed.
Congress, federal agencies and state bar associations should work together on new regulations to ensure U.S. lawyers aren't enabling Russia-related sanctions evasion, Stanford Law School lecturer Erik Jensen and a host of law students recommended in a recent report.
The Treasury Department this week released its 2024 risk assessment for the non-fungible token industry, outlining how NFTs and their platforms can be used to evade sanctions, fund terrorism, finance weapons proliferation and more.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two companies in the Central African Republic linked to the Wagner Group, the designated private Russian military organization. The sanctions target Mining Industries SARLU and Logistique Economique Etrangere SARLU for “enabling Wagner Group security operations and Wagner Group-linked illicit mining endeavors” in the CAR, OFAC said.
Japan sanctioned one Russian national, nine Russian entities and two Cypriot entities last week for their roles in aiding Russia's procurement of arms from North Korea, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced, according to an unofficial translation.
Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo met with researchers, non-governmental organizations and others in Kyiv, Ukraine, this week to discuss Russia sanctions, trade restrictions and other issues. Treasury said they talked about “unlocking the value of immobilized Russia sovereign assets, Russia’s transition to a wartime economy, and restricting Russia’s revenue and disrupting Russian procurement of priority goods.”
The Biden administration doesn't support congressional calls to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for threatening to issue arrest warrants against two senior Israeli officials, a White House official said May 28.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three Chinese nationals for their ties to a “residential proxy botnet” called 911 S5 that allows hackers to hide their locations and evade fraud detection systems. The designations target Yunhe Wang, Jingping Liu and Yanni Zheng along with Spicy Code Company Limited, a company used by Wang to buy real estate, and Tulip Biz Pattaya Group Company Limited and Lily Suites Company Limited, other companies owned by Wang.