The Bureau of Industry and Security will increase the number of penalties it issues against corporations for export violations this year, an effort it hopes will lead to improved industry compliance, the top export BIS enforcement official said last week. DOJ also will concentrate more resources on targeting export violators, a top agency official said, and plans to significantly expand its Export Control Section.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published previously issued general licenses under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of each license appears in the notice.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned eight Mexican companies linked to a scam involving “timeshare fraud” on behalf of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, a “violent” Mexican drug trafficking organization. The agency also issued new guidance to alert industry about the scam and other schemes, including one involving people falsely claiming to represent OFAC and requesting payments through phone calls and emails.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently reintroduced several bills that could lead to sanctions against China and North Korea:

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published two sets of previously issued general licenses under its Venezuela sanctions regime. The full text of each license appears in the respective notice.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three entities and two people “illicitly generating revenue” for North Korea. The designations target Chilsong Trading Corp., a North Korean government trading company, and Korea Paekho Trading Corp., a government-controlled company that conducts art and construction projects for “regimes” throughout the Middle East and Africa. OFAC also sanctioned Hwang Kil Su, Pak Hwa Song and their Democratic Republic of the Congo-based company, Congo Aconde SARL, which earns revenue from construction and statue-building projects with local governments.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined an Indian tobacco manufacturer $332,500 this week for violating U.S. sanctions against North Korea. Mumbai-based Godfrey Phillips India Limited (GPI), which didn’t voluntarily disclose the violations, settled with OFAC after the company used U.S. banks to receive payments for indirect tobacco shipments to North Korea, OFAC said, and used third-party companies to try to hide the payments’ connection to North Korea.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated an existing China-related entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The entry is for Hebei Atun Trading Co., a company sanctioned by OFAC in 2021 for its involvement in fentanyl precursor chemical sales and falsifying chemical shipment details.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Jesus Cisneros Hernandez, a Mexican arms trafficker, for his ties to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), a “violent Mexico-based organization” that traffics fentanyl and other drugs that enter the U.S., OFAC said. It said the designation was coordinated with Mexico and noted CJNG was previously sanctioned in 2015.

Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, a citizen of Lebanon and Belgium, and Talal Chahine, a Lebanese citizen, were charged as part of a conspiracy to launder money, cause U.S. citizens to conduct illegal transactions with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and conduct illegal transactions with a sanctioned terrorist, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Feb. 24. Each charge carries the possible punishment of up to 20 years in prison.