“I’m watching you.” Just as Robert De Niro warned Greg Focker in Meet the Parents, Fokker Services should have realized that the U.S. government was watching too. By doing so, it could have avoided a $21 million fine for exporting U.S.-made goods to Iran, Sudan, and Burma in violation of trade sanctions.

Fokker Services, a subsidiary of the Dutch aerospace company Fokker Technologies Holding BV, admitted to more than 1,100 shipments of banned aircraft parts, technology, and services to sanctioned countries between 2005 and 2010. The $21 million fine represents the value of these transactions.

Surprisingly, U.S. trade with Russia grew in March, despite rising tensions and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. According to the Commerce Department, exports of U.S. goods to Russia rose 9% from the prior month, and imports from Russia rose 36%.

The U.S. tends to import Russian oil, metals and fertilizers and export machinery, vehicles, and food. March’s trade increase can largely be attributed to a surge in exports of civilian aircraft and autos.

Talk about a Cuban Export Crisis….CWT B.V., a Dutch travel agency, has been fined $5.9M by the U.S. government for violating the trade embargo to Cuba. CWT’s violations took place from August 8, 2006 to November 28, 2012 and involved trips to Cuba by 44,430 people.

But why, you might ask, is a Dutch company getting fined by the U.S. government? In 2006, CWT became majority-owned by U.S. entities and thus subject to the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act. CWT continued doing business with Cuba, but without obtaining the necessary licenses issued by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The camaraderie of last month’s Sochi Winter Olympics seems to be a fleeting memory as relations between the U.S. and Russia continue to deteriorate. In its latest response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the U.S. announced that it has imposed a ban on the issuance of export licenses for defense items and services to Russia. The State Department halted licensing on Monday, while the Commerce Department suspended licensing on March 1st.

The Commerce Department will halt sales of software, electronic devices, optical sensors and cameras, which were all among the $1.5 billion worth of exports to Russia licensed in 2013. Of that $1.5 billion, $798 million were for detonators and $367 million were for software products. Other products included encrypted software, ammunition for firearms, spacecraft, and chemicals.

We know that keeping up with Export Control Reform (ECR) changes can be tough, so we’re breaking down the latest updates for you right here!

Get Caught Up: To date, 13 of the 21 categories on the U.S. Munitions list have been modified. These items include aircraft, explosives, gas turbine engines, missiles and military vehicles, which combined account for approximately 90 percent of all export licenses.