The US Department of the Treasury has included a Taiwanese firm in its expanded list of companies and individuals facing possible sanctions for supplying or helping to finance the sale of military technology to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement released by the department on Monday, its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the additions to the list targeted a transnational network procuring technology for Russia’s military-industrial complex.
They also focused on “a global network of financial facilitators, enablers, and others associated with two key Kremlin-linked elites whose fortunes are intertwined with the West,” it said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The new sanctions “designated 14 individuals and 28 entities,” including Taiwan’s Sharp Edge Engineering Inc (銳元科技), “and identified eight aircraft as blocked property,” the statement said.
Other individuals and entities targeted by the sanctions came from France and Switzerland, it said.
Sharp Edge, based in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), began operations on Dec. 13, 2016, and is an electronic components wholesaler, OFAC data showed.
The US agency said the Taiwanese firm was a front company used to purchase microelectronic components from Asian suppliers, and that employees of PKK Milandr (Milandr), a Russian microelectronics company, used a Sharp Edge account to procure equipment.
Sharp Edge was “designated ... for being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Milandr,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement yesterday that Sharp Edge is a one-person company established by a Russian national in Taiwan.
The Bureau of Foreign Trade learned about the company’s sale of semiconductors with military applications to Russia in the middle of this year, and has cooperated with the Customs Administration to strengthen controls on the firm, the ministry said.
The bureau in March imposed export curbs on Russia under the Wassenaar Arrangement after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and further tightened its controls over exports to Russia in April, adding 57 sensitive goods and high-tech items, such as PCs and telecom equipment, in line with Western sanctions, the ministry said.
How much the new designation affects the dealings of Sharp Edge remains to be seen, because the sanctions only freeze the assets of those on the list held under US jurisdiction, and prohibit US individuals and entities from doing business with them.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the US has imposed a series of sanctions against Moscow to prevent it from acquiring the military equipment and components needed to support its military, blocking US-related companies from selling equipment and components to Moscow.
“The United States will continue to expose and disrupt the Kremlin’s military supply chains and deny Russia the equipment and technology it needs to wage its illegal war against Ukraine,” US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in the statement.
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
RSS