A man arrested in connection with a scheme to illegally export U.S.-origin radio communications technology to Russian end users without a license pleased guilty in US District Court in Washington June 17.

The Justice Department announced it has declined to prosecute White Deer Management LLC, a private equity firm, after the firm voluntarily self-disclosed criminal violations of U.S. sanctions and export control laws committed by an acquired company, Unicat Catalyst Technologies LLC (Unicat).

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed a $215,988,868 civil penalty on GVA Capital Ltd., a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, for egregious violations of U.S. sanctions targeting Russia and Ukraine, and for failing to comply with a federal subpoena.

Head of the Criminal Division Matthew Galeotti discussed his  newly released Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Enforcement Guidelines at the American Conference Institute (ACI) FCPA & Global Anti‑Corruption Conference in New York June 10. The guidelines, outlined in a June 9, 2025 memorandum from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, direct prosecutors to pursue FCPA cases only when U.S. interests are demonstrably implicated.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has issued new enforcement guidelines governing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), consistent with the President's mandate to give US firms more latitude to compete overseas.  The new rules restore what the Administration has called the “proper bounds” of FCPA enforcement and reorient prosecutorial discretion toward conduct that demonstrably undermines American strategic and economic interests.

Federal prosecutors have unsealed a 22-count indictment charging  a Russian national residing in New York, with operating an unlicensed cross-border money laundering scheme through his cryptocurrency firms to funnel over $530 million through the U.S. financial system in violation of U.S. sanctions, export controls, and anti-money laundering laws.

A Chinese national residing unlawfully in the United States pleaded guilty June 9th to federal charges for illegally exporting firearms, ammunition, and controlled technology to North Korea at the direction of government officials in Pyongyang, who wired him approximately $2 million for the procurement and smuggling operation.

A federal jury convicted a Pakistani sea captain on multiple terrorism and weapons trafficking charges related to smuggling Iranian-made advanced conventional weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Federal counterterrorism and financial intelligence enforcement activities face markedly lower funding in the "Big Beautiful Bill" budget under consideration in the Senate.   While Commerce is asking for an increase in BIS funding, other areas, including export promotion, are being gutted.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Wisconsin has indicted two men for attempting to smuggle sensitive U.S. defense technology to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A separate indictment in Los Angeles charges the pair with interstate stalking.

The U.S. Department of Justice has significantly expanded corporate liability exposure by amending its Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program (CWAPP) to include violations of federal immigration law, according to a client alert issued by Littler Mendelson P.C.

Matthew Axelrod, former Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce, cautioned financial institutions against assuming any relaxation in export control enforcement under the new administration.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), U.S. Department of Commerce, has issued denial orders against seven individuals for violating U.S. export control laws. The actions, signed by Acting Director of the Office of Export Enforcement Dan Clutch, follow criminal convictions for smuggling, export conspiracies, and transactions with sanctioned entities.

In a pointed and urgent address titled “A Reckless Game of Regulatory Jenga,” SEC Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw sharply criticized recent deregulatory moves by the Commission, warning that they undermine institutional integrity, ignore market risks, and erode protections for investors and the financial system.

The Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting individuals and entities tied to oil smuggling and narcotics trafficking networks linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The action aligns with the Administration’s focus on southwest border enforcement and the financial disruption of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated three Mexican nationals and two Mexico-based companies for their roles in smuggling crude oil stolen from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) into the United States. 

David Peters has been nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, plugging one of the largest remaining gaps in the org chart at the Bureau of Industry and Security. Peters, most recently a Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section, Market Integrity and Major Frauds of the Justice Department takes the reins from Matt Axelrod, now with Gibson Dunn in Washington.

The Justice Department announced that it has declined the prosecution of Universities Space Research Association (USRA) after it self-disclosed five years ago criminal violations of U.S. export control laws committed by its former employee. Jonathan Soong pleaded guilty in January 2023 to willfully violating the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by exporting U.S. Army-developed aviation software to a university in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that had been placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule in the Federal Register amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to add 18 foreign entities to the Unverified List (UVL) and remove five previously listed parties.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged United Insurance Brokers Limited (UIBL) with failing to prevent bribery by its associates in a case involving multimillion-dollar reinsurance contracts in Ecuador. UIBL, a London-based reinsurance firm, is accused of allowing U.S.-based intermediaries to bribe Ecuadorean officials between October 2013 and March 2016 in exchange for awarding contracts valued at approximately $38 million. The contracts were issued by state-owned insurers covering Ecuador’s public sector infrastructure, including water and electricity companies.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce for potential violations of export control regulations, a case which may give Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and BIS Chief Jeffrey Kessler an opportunity to impose their promised "dramatic increase in enforcement and fines for people who break the rules.