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Taiwan company faces sanctions for military tech sales to Russia

ROC Central News Agency

11/15/2022 12:08 PM

Washington, Nov. 14 (CNA) The U.S. Department of Treasury has expanded its list of companies, including a Taiwanese enterprise, and individuals facing possible sanctions for supplying or helping finance the sale of military technology to Russia for its war against Ukraine.

In a statement released by the U.S. Treasury on Monday, the agency's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the latest 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."

The new sanctions designated 14 individuals and 28 entities, including Taiwan's Sharp Edge Engineering Inc., and identified eight aircraft as blocked property, the U.S. Treasury said.

Other individuals and entities targeted by the newly imposed sanctions came from France and Switzerland, according to the department.

According to OFAC data, Sharp Edge Engineering, based in Taipei's Neihu District, was set up on Dec. 13, 2016 and is an electronics component wholesaler.

The U.S. agency has accused the Taiwanese company of serving as a front company used to purchase microelectronic components from Asian companies, saying that employees of PKK Milandr (Milandr), a Russian microelectronics company, have utilized a Sharp Edge account to procure equipment.

Sharp Edge Engineering 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 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," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.

How much the new designation affects the dealings of the Taiwan company remains to be seen because the sanctions only freeze the assets of those on the list held under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit U.S. individuals and entities from doing business with them.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 14, the U.S. has imposed a series of sanctions against Moscow to prevent it from getting military equipment and components needed to support its military, blocking U.S.-related companies from selling equipment and components to Moscow.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Frances Huang)

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