The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a temporary denial order this week against two Russian nationals, their Florida company, a Maldives business and a Russian airline for a scheme to illegally supply aviation parts to Russia. Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Vasilii Sergeyevich Besedin used their Florida-based company MIC P&I to try to export to Russia more than $2 million worth of U.S. aircraft components, including Goodrich brake assemblies, in a procurement network that went through Intermodal Maldives and eventually to Russia’s JSC Smartavia Airlines.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week proposed new export controls on automated peptide synthesizers that may be used to produce biological weapons (see 2304170010). Although several U.S. companies and a Chinese academy last year warned BIS against imposing new license requirements, the agency said the synthesizers qualify as emerging or foundational technologies and may need to be restricted.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on April 19 fined Seagate Technology $300 million for violating U.S. export controls against Huawei in what it said is the “largest standalone administrative penalty in BIS history.” The agency said the California-based company and its branch in Singapore sold more than 7 million export-controlled hard disk drives to Huawei in violation of the BIS foreign direct product rule.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will soon request feedback from industry, academia and others on key differences in U.S. and EU interpretations of export control provisions, said Charles Wall, BIS’ senior policy adviser for the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council. Wall, speaking during a BIS technical advisory committee meeting this week, said the notice will ask for “very specific information” on discrepancies between the two territories' export control regimes and ways those rules can be harmonized.
The Census Bureau and CBP this week announced new reporting requirements for exporters sending certain chip-related items to China under a temporary general license or “authorization letter” from the Bureau of Industry and Security. Electronic filers of export information must now use one of Census’ two new license codes in the Automated Export System when using a BIS authorization that exempts them from certain licensing requirements under the agency’s sweeping China chip controls released in October (see 2210070049).
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added 37 entities to the Entity List for a range of activities the agency said threaten U.S. national security, including for supporting Russia’s war effort, sending controlled items to China’s military and aiding companies already listed on the Entity List. The entities -- located in Belarus, Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Russia and Taiwan -- will be subject to a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with varying license application review policies. BIS also modified 10 existing Chinese entries on the Entity List. The additions and changes took effect March 2.
The Commerce, State and Justice departments fined an American 3D printing company more than $25 million combined after it committed a range of export violations, including illegal shipments of aerospace technology and metal alloy powder to China and controlled design documents to Germany.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced a range of updates to its export regulations stemming from agreements made during the 2021 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary meeting, including revisions to the Commerce Control List and the license exceptions Adjusted Peak Performance (APP) and Strategic Trade Authorization (STA). The agency also made several corrections to the Export Administration Regulations, including to align the scope of its Significant Item (SI) license requirements throughout the EAR.
A Miami-based company violated U.S. export regulations when it illegally shipped red dot scopes to Austria and Switzerland, the Bureau of Industry and Security said in Feb. 2 order. The company, Dotphins, entered into a settlement agreement with BIS that will require it to complete compliance training.
New U.S. chip export controls are among the most complex export regulatory provisions ever published and have caused significant uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, trade groups and technology firms told the Bureau of Industry and Security in comments that were due this week. More than 40 companies, trade associations, law firms and others asked BIS to revise parts of the regulations or offer more guidance to avoid hurting U.S. competitiveness, with some saying the new controls may force foreign companies to stop using U.S.-origin items altogether rather than deal with the added compliance obligations.