For a detailed post about Russia-related sanctions developments you can check: Special Edition - New Sanctions Against Russia 🇷🇺
To see non-Russia- related previous weeks' updates you can check: Weekly Updates
Monday, May 16th
The EU Council extended its sanctions regime against cyber-attacks threatening the Union for another year through May 18, 2023. (Decision, press release)
The U.S. government issued an advisory note and a fact sheet to highlight the risk associated with attempts by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and DPRK information technology workers to obtain employment while posing as non-DPRK nationals. (Here, State Department's Press release)
The advisory provides detailed information on how DPRK IT workers operate and identifies red flag indicators and due diligence measures to help companies avoid hiring DPRK freelance developers and to help freelance and digital payment platforms identify DPRK IT workers abusing their services. (Here)
The fact sheet provides a summary of the advisory. (Here)
The U.S. Department of State designated Attorney General of Guatemala Maria Consuelo Porras Argueta de Porres due to her involvement in significant corruption pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022. (Here)
Following a policy shift with respect to Cuba, the U.S. government announced some actions to support the Cuban population. (Press release, fact sheet) The new relaxations will fall into three categories:
Travel related relaxations;
Increasing the support for independent Cuban entrepreneurs by allowing certain transactions; and
Removing the current limit on family remittances of $1,000 per quarter per sender-receiver pair and authorizing donative (i.e., non-family) remittances.
Tuesday, May 17th
Wednesday, May 18th
No major development on this day.
Thursday, May 19th
OFSI added three Russian airlines to its list of sanctions targets. (Here)
OFAC designated Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah, a Lebanese businessman and Hizballah financial facilitator, as well as five of his associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq pursuant to the authority granted under E.O. 13224. (Here, Treasury's press release, Department of State's press release)
The Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1518 (Iraq sanctions) removed an individual and two entities from its Sanctions List of individuals and entities. (Here)
Friday, May 20th
OFAC cleaned up the SDN list by removing some of the entries that related to deceased individuals and by updating the information about five entities which were removed from list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (but still SDNs). (Here, Department of State's press release)
BIS issued an order denying the export privileges of a fifth Russian airline – Rossiya Airlines – due to ongoing export violations related to comprehensive export controls on Russia imposed by the Commerce Department. (Here)
Recommendation of the week
An interesting webinar is coming up: After the dust settles: Russia, Sanctions, and the new legal landscape (Register here)