The State Department is removing sanctions on Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan national and “key middleman” of the A.Q. Khan nuclear procurement network that was sanctioned in 2009, the agency said Dec. 2. Tahir was sanctioned under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Prevention Act and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, the agency said. The agency did not provide a reason the sanctions were being removed.
The State Department sanctioned the Iran Space Agency, the Iran Space and Research Center and the Astronautics Research Institute for activities relating to weapons proliferation, manufacture, transport and use, according to a Dec. 2 notice. The sanctions block all U.S. property belong to the agency, property of people or companies who exported goods or provided support to the agencies and any companies owned by the agencies. The notice provides primary and alternative addresses for each of the agencies, which are based in Iran.
A U.S. electronics and computer component company may have violated U.S. sanctions on Iran and Syria, the company said in a Nov. 7 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Colorado-based Arrow Electronics said a “limited number of non-executive employees … facilitated product shipment” to customers for re-export to people covered by U.S. sanctions on Iran and Syria. The transactions took place between 2015 and 2019 and were valued at about $5,000, the company said. Arrow Electronics said it voluntarily disclosed the potential violations to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls and the Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security earlier this year. It also disciplined or fired employees involved in the transactions and said it plans to “cooperate fully” with BIS and OFAC. The company said it is not able to “estimate” the potential penalty it may receive.
The Treasury Department is seeking comments on an information collection that extends a currently approved collection designating North Korea as a “Jurisdiction of Primary Money Laundering Concern,” according to a notice. The designation bans banks and other financial institutions from opening accounts in the U.S. on behalf of a North Korean bank and processing North Korean transactions, the notice said. Comments are due Dec. 30.
The U.S. is continuing sanctions on Nicaragua, the White House said Nov. 25. Nicaraguan officials' use of violence, “dismantling” of democratic institutions and corruption continue to “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy, the White House said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Corporacion Panamericana, a Cuban company controlled by U.S.-sanctioned Cubametales, Treasury said Nov. 26. Since it was sanctioned, Cubametales has offered Corporacion Panamericana as an intermediary to companies who decline to do business with Cubametales.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s minister of Information and Communications Technology, Treasury said in a Nov. 22 press release. Azari Jahromi is in charge of a ministry that restricts the country’s internet use and blocked it for several days in November in the wake of anti-regime protests, Treasury said. The ministry also restricts “popular communication platforms,” Treasury said, and Azari Jahromi played a role in launching Iran’s National Information Network, which helps the government “monitor, restrict, and completely block internet usage.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is amending the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations by adding recent Venezuela-related executive orders, a recent general license and an “interpretive provision,” OFAC said in a Nov. 22 notice. OFAC is adding a general license “previously posted only on OFAC’s website” that authorizes certain U.S. government activities in Venezuela. The interpretive provision, which involves settlement agreements and enforcements of liens, judgments or “other orders through” the “judicial process,” clarified that the “entry into a settlement agreement … is prohibited unless authorized pursuant to a specific license issued by OFAC.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent penalty against a U.S. company’s sanctions and anti-corruption violations may be an indication of the SEC’s intent to begin penalizing sanctions violators, according to a Nov. 18 post by Squire Patton Boggs. The penalty marked a “rare foray” by the SEC into sanctions enforcement, the post said, and may signal its aim to explore new ways of policing companies.
The U.S. is continuing sanctions on Burundi, the White House said in a Nov. 19 notice. The situation in Burundi -- marked by “violence” and “political repression” -- continues to “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security, the White House said. The sanctions are being renewed for one year from Nov. 22. The national emergency with regard to Burundi was originally declared Nov. 22, 2015.