Sanctions

The United States has lifted sanctions on three Russian-flagged commercial vessels, but the Treasury Department says the move does not signal a broader change in Washington’s policy toward Russia.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday issued new guidance warning that sham transactions used by sanctioned individuals and entities to disguise continuing control over assets do not extinguish a blocked interest in property under U.S. sanctions rules.

Hungary’s foreign minister privately shared sensitive European Union discussions with Russia and worked with Moscow to try to remove sanctioned Russian individuals, banks, and companies from EU blacklists.

Cuba was preparing on Monday to receive a sanctioned Russian tanker carrying about 730,000 barrels of oil, offering a temporary lifeline to the island as it struggles through a fuel crisis worsened by a U.S. oil blockade.

Britain’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has fined Apple Distribution International Ltd £390,000 for breaching Russian sanctions, saying the subsidiary of Apple instructed a UK bank to make two payments totaling £635,618.75 to a Russian streaming company owned by a designated entity.

The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Monday issued an advisory urging banks and other financial institutions to step up detection and reporting of healthcare fraud tied to Medicare, Medicaid and other public health benefit programs.

The trial of Russian businessman Dmitry Klyuev, accused by French prosecutors of laundering proceeds of the $230 million Magnitsky Affair fraud through luxury purchases in France, opened in Paris on Monday. 

The Trump administration is weighing whether to designate Brazil’s two largest drug gangs as terrorist organizations, a step that could expand the U.S. sanctions toolkit to include financial restrictions on the groups and their associates.

Britain has expanded its crackdown on Southeast Asia’s scam economy by sanctioning Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto marketplace that officials say helped service scam centers, along with Legend Innovation Co., the operator of Cambodia’s “#8 Park” compound, and six individuals allegedly tied to the network.

A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators is set to introduce legislation that would seek sanctions on senior Hungarian officials involved in blocking aid to Ukraine and maintaining the country’s reliance on Russian energy.