Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
James Treanor, former attorney-adviser in the Office of Foreign Assets Control's chief counsel's office, has joined Akin as a senior counsel, he announced on LinkedIn. Treanor will help clients with international trade and national security-related regulatory and enforcement issues, including those related to sanctions and export controls. He left OFAC in June.
The Russian grantor of a blocked U.S.-based trust company is suing the Office of Foreign Assets Control, saying OFAC falsely accused the trust of being used to help a Russian oligarch evade sanctions. Kuncha Kerimova, the grantor, said the trust was designed to share her wealth with her grandchildren and other descendants, not to aid designated Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov.
Adam Szubin, former head of the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Covington, where he will work on sanctions, export controls, money laundering and investment security issues. Szubin, who mostly served in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, was most recently a lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell.
A Texas-based industrial equipment supplier and its former CEO were fined millions of dollars for intentionally violating sanctions and export control laws, but the U.S. declined to prosecute its parent company after the firm voluntarily disclosed the violations and cooperated closely with DOJ’s investigation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week removed a former Lebanon-based small business owner from its Specially Designated Nationals List after he sued the Treasury Department over his designation in December, arguing that OFAC unfairly delayed a decision on his delisting request.
Joyce Adetutu, a former partner at Baker Botts, has joined Vinson & Elkins as a partner in the export controls and economic sanctions practice, the firm announced. Adetutu's practice centers on export controls, trade, sanctions and tariff issues, including reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the firm said.
DOJ this week announced charges against two Iranian nationals and one company for illegally sending export-controlled U.S. technology to Iran and for providing "material support" to the country's military.
The Department of the Treasury last week dropped sanctions against cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash following a review of the "novel legal and policy issues raised by use of financial sanctions against financial and commercial activity occurring within evolving technology and legal environments." Treasury told a Texas court it removed Tornado Cash from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, arguing that a case against the sanctions listing should now be briefed on whether the issue is moot (Van Loon, et al. v. Department of the Treasury, W.D. Tex. # 23-00312).
Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized an aircraft used by sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) at the request of the U.S. government due to alleged sanctions and export control violations, DOJ announced.