Day: November 16, 2021

A US DoJ news release on 16 November advised that a man has pleaded guilty to a wire fraud scheme involving the selling of Chinese-made military helmets, body armour, and other products to the Department of State and other federal agencies while falsely claiming that his company manufactured the goods in Texas.  Tanner Jackson, 32, operated Top Body Armor LLC USA, and a related entity, Bullet Proof Armor LLC.  He supplied equipment including to personnel guarding the US Embassy in Baghdad and to foreign law enforcement partners in Latin America.  The equipment was removed from service after concerns about its quality came to light.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/texas-man-pleads-guilty-selling-chinese-made-military-helmets-and-body-armor-federal

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An article from Dentons on 16 November said in an article that on 5 November, the President of Ukraine signed a Law “On Prevention of Threats to National Security Related to the Excessive Influence of Persons who have Significant Economic and Political Weight in Public Life (Oligarchs)”.  From 7 May, the Law sets out a legal framework addressing the status of oligarchs in Ukraine.

https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/alerts/2021/november/16/ukraine-anti-oligarchs-law-raises-issues-for-banks-to-consider-by-may-7-2022

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On 16 November, Hellenic Shipping News reported that American Shipper has learned that since China began implementing its new privacy laws on 1 November, many Chinese automatic identification system (AIS) terrestrial providers have stopped transmitting data until they understand the regulations.   This is resulting in an incomplete picture of vessels in the ports.  A quote in the article warns that if we see reductions in the coverage of the AIS data that logistics managers have come to rely on, we could see further delays and operations suffer, having a knock-on effect to wider supply chains.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/latest-supply-chain-challenge-chinas-terrestrial-ais-data-blackout/

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On 16 November, the EU Parliament Research Service published a briefing paper which compares 4 such programmes: the US Global Magnitsky Act, Canada’s Sergei Magnitsky Law, the UK’s Global Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Regulations, and the EU’s restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses, the most recent of the 4 to be adopted. All of these are inspired by the ambition to tackle serious human rights crimes from around the world, but there are also significant differences, for example, in terms of the threshold for human rights offences, the inclusion or not of corruption-related offences, and the role played by parliaments and civil society.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2021/698791/EPRS_BRI(2021)698791_EN.pdf

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On 16 November, the Guardian reported that Germany has suspended its approval process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which would double its reliance on Russian gas following growing pressure to scrap the project.   The German energy regulator suspended its certification process, in a big setback to Gazprom’s plans to extend Russian gas dominance via a new pipeline across the Baltic Sea.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/16/germany-suspends-approval-for-nord-stream-2-gas-pipeline

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On 15 November, following the release of the follow-up report on the Cayman Islands, FATF published an updated version of the schedule of all assessment ratings to date.

http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/4th-Round-Ratings.pdf

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On 15 November, FATF published a report from FATF-style regional body CFATF and said that the Cayman Islands has addressed most of the requirements of the revised Recommendation 15 (new technologies), and has been re-rated from Partially Compliant to Largely Compliant.  As a result, no FATF Recommendations are now rated as NC/PC.  However, the Cayman Islands will remain in enhanced follow-up on the basis that it had a low or moderate level of effectiveness for 7 or more of the 11 effectiveness outcomes (IO) – follow-up reports do not address effectiveness ratings.  According to the enhanced follow-up process, Cayman Islands will continue to report back to the CFATF on progress to strengthen its implementation of AML/CFT measures.  The original mutual evaluation report was in 2019. 

http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/fur/CFATF-Follow-Up-Report-Cayman-Islands-2021.pdf

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EU Regulation 2021/1985/EU on 15 November amended the existing sanctions regime and introduces an additional designation criterion to allow for the application of targeted restrictive measures against natural or legal persons, entities or bodies organising or contributing to activities by the Lukashenka regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the external borders of the EU or the transfer of prohibited goods and the illegal transfer of restricted goods, including hazardous goods, into the territory of the EU.

EU Regulation 2021/1986/EU also amended the sanctions regime re certain exceptions to the prohibition on providing insurance and re-insurance to the Belarusian Government and Belarusian public bodies and agencies, in order to avoid unintended consequences.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2021.405.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A405%3ATOC

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/AUTO/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2021.405.01.0008.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2021:405:TOC

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2021.405.01.0003.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A405%3ATOC

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/AUTO/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2021.405.01.0010.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2021:405:TOC

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EU Regulation 2021/1983/EU of 15 November adds Amr SALEM, Boutros AL-HALLAQ, Mohammad SEIFEDDINE (aka. Seif Eddin, Seif El Din) and Diala BARAKAT to sanctions lists.  5 existing entries on the lists are amended at the same time.  The 4 new names are ministers appointed in August.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.LI.2021.402.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A402I%3ATOC

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.LI.2021.402.01.0005.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A402I%3ATOC

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/11/15/syria-four-new-ministers-added-to-eu-sanctions-list/?utm_source=dsms-auto&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Syria%3a+four+new+ministers+added+to+EU+sanctions+list