Day: October 10, 2019

On 10^th October, Arabian Aerospace reported that the illegal trade in wild animals and animal products amounts to around $23 billion a year, much of it operating around the air transport sector.  However, it says, the USAID ROUTES Partnership, an organisation that specialises in disrupting wildlife trafficking, and the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a non-profit research organisation, have come together to launch the first-ever data dashboard on wildlife trafficking in the air transport sector.  The analysis relies on the C4ADS air seizure database, which features the most comprehensive collection of illegal wildlife trade seizures and includes instances in more than 130 countries.  It is said that before companies and agencies can take action to combat wildlife trafficking they have to understand how it affects their regions, businesses, and supply chains.  Also available is the Route Risk Tool allows users to check for wildlife trafficking instances along specific flight routes or to and from specific cities. Future iterations of the Tool will provide a risk estimate for each route based on past wildlife trafficking activity along that route.

https://routespartnership.org/

https://www.arabianaerospace.aero/routes-to-beat-the-wildlife-smugglers.html

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Control Risks has made available a downloadable report saying that businesses face an increasingly unpredictable global sanctions landscape heading into 2020, and for the foreseeable future.  In the report, Control Risks experts look at developments and trends facing businesses and their counsel.  It sets out to provide an overview of the sanctions landscape; associated risks with doing business around these regimes – focusing on Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Syria – as well as practical advice for avoiding pitfalls and operating intelligently.

https://www.controlrisks.com/campaigns/navigating-sanctions-regimes-responding-to-growing-unpredictability?utm_campaign=sanctions_report_2019

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On 10^th October, OFAC announced additions to the entries for the BAHMAN GROUP, based in Iran and said to be linked to the IRGC; and Kambiz ROSTAMIAN, an Iranian who also holds a St Kitts & Nevis passport.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20191010.aspx

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On 10^th October, a news release from the US Treasury advised that OFAC sanctioned members of a significant corruption network in South Africa that it said had leveraged overpayments on government contracts, bribery, and other corrupt acts to fund political contributions and influence government actions.  OFAC designated Ajay Gupta, Atul Gupta, Rajesh Gupta, and Salim Essa.  The news release says that Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh Gupta immigrated to South Africa in the 1990s, and due in large part to their generous donations to a political party and their reportedly close relationship with former South African President Jacob Zuma, their business interests expanded.   The family has been implicated in several corrupt schemes in South Africa, allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through illegal deals with the South African government, obfuscated by a shadowy network of shell companies and associates linked to the family.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm789

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20191010.aspx

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On 9^th October, American Shipper reported a court case involving the loss of the 1992-built, 150,000-deadweight-ton Brilliante Virtuoso.  Bought for $46 million, by 2011, the ship was worth only $13.5 million and after a series of refinancings, the owners were receiving notices of default.  The Brilliship was insured for $77 million though, almost 6 times its value.  The tanker loaded a cargo of fuel oil in Kerch, Ukraine, in 2011 for transport to China.  However, it was subsequently lost in a fire started by the detonation of an improvised explosive incendiary device, seemingly placed by armed men who boarded the ship.  The ship was badly damaged and was scrapped.  The insurance claims was rejected on the grounds that the fire was deliberately set, and a High Court agreed with this interpretation.  The most recent, and long trial, was the result of a case brought by a bank, which argued that it should be paid by the insurers even if “wilful misconduct of the owner” was proven.  This claim was also rejected.

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/uk-judge-greek-owner-faked-pirate-attack-set-own-ship-ablaze

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On 10^th October, Rferl reported that an international arrest warrant is being prepared for Ukrainian billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevaho, who the newly created State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) suspects of large-scale money laundering and embezzlement of funds from a bank he formerly owned – the Finance and Credit bank, which was closed by the central bank in 2014.  He is also the majority owner of Ferrexpo, a London-traded iron ore pellet producer based in Poltava, a centrally-located region in Ukraine.  The company boasts Europe’s largest iron-ore deposit, with approximately 20 billion tons of resources.

https://www.rferl.org/a/international-warrant-being-drafted-for-ukraine-billionaire-zhevaho/30209246.html

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A report from Chatham House on 10^th October looks at Libya’s oil industry, saying that amid continuing violence and instability, up to one-third of oil goes missing from official supply chains each year, fuelling a black market that ultimately steals from state coffers at the expense of the population.  Locals face shortage of fuel for heating and their motors.  Libya’s oil refineries are supposed to be guarded by Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) units. But according to the chair of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, PFG have ‘descended into local fiefs’.  It is said that Libya’s Audit Bureau noted that the value of crude oil supplied to the refineries was approximately $2 billion in 2017, yet the value of the fuel actually received by fuel distribution depots, the next link in the supply chain, was only around $1 billion.  The situation is also said to have underpinned the growth of sea-borne smuggling, allowing refined products enter the international fuel markets.

https://chathamhouse.shorthandstories.com/libya-rich-in-oil-leaking-fuel/index.html

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On 9^th October, Gowling WLG produced a fairly comprehensive, and certainly useful and interesting, briefing intended to help businesses identify where their key risks are and what they should do.  While it focuses on UK businesses which trade with the risk of the EU, it also comments on trading with the rest of the world.  It comprises 5 sections –

• What you should do? This is the key part. It explains how to map your supply chain and the key issues you need to address;
• This explains the difference between a hard Brexit and a soft Brexit. It is important to understand the difference as a hard Brexit will introduce more change;
• Brexit opportunities. Brexit may bring new opportunities; this part explains those opportunities;
• Key risks of Brexit for the supply chain. This sets out the key Brexit risks; and
• A Brexit supply chain checklist.

https://gowlingwlg.com/en/insights-resources/articles/2018/how-to-ensure-your-supply-chain-is-brexit-ready/

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On 10^th October, Intergame reported that the Gibraltar-based, UK-facing gambling company is to pay a total penalty of £322,000 after an investigation by the Gambling Commission uncovered money laundering failings.  It is said to have failed to carry out adequate source of funds checks on a customer who deposited £210,000, and lost £140,000, of stolen money in a 12-day period in November 2017.

https://www.intergameonline.com/igaming/news/betfred-to-pay-322k-over-aml-failures

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On 10^th October, an article from Sandler Travis Rosenberg says that US companies and their foreign affiliates are prohibited from participating in foreign boycotts that the US does not sanction. Such actions can result in substantial criminal and civil penalties. The Arab League boycott of Israel is the principal foreign economic boycott that US companies must be concerned with today.  The US Treasury has published its quarterly list of countries that require or may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott, and the list currently comprises Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, and Yemen.

https://www.strtrade.com/news-publications-anti-boycott-penalties-countries-list-101019.html

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