Expect More Joint BIS, OFAC Enforcement, BIS Official Says

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week signed an “agreement” with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to improve coordination among the two agencies’ export control and sanctions enforcement teams, said Matthew Axelrod, the top BIS export enforcement official. The agreement will help in “formalizing our close coordination and partnership,” Axelrod said during a July 26 Society for International Affairs conference, according to a copy of his speech emailed by BIS.

Axelrod said the two agencies will now look to “jointly resolve investigations of common subjects, including matters voluntarily disclosed to both agencies.” Companies can “expect to see more coordinated enforcement actions from us going forward,” Axelrod said.

“My team and I already meet regularly with our counterparts at OFAC. Now, we’ll ensure that our enforcement teams are working even more closely together.”

Axelrod also said BIS is working closer with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The two agencies are searching for “additional ways to notify financial institutions of export control evasion trends more broadly beyond our Russia controls” and better support financial institutions’ reporting of “activities that contribute to those trends.” BIS and FinCEN last year published a joint alert that put companies and entities “on notice” about the types of red flags they should be monitoring for potential Russian sanctions and export control evasion tactics (see 2210060043, 2207130014) and 2212160027).