DOJ Unseals Indictments Charging 5 People With Conspiracy to Evade US Sanctions on Iran
The Department of Justice unsealed two indictments charging four U.S. citizens and a Chinese citizen with conspiring to buy oil from Iran to be sold to a Chinese refinery. The indictments, outlined in court records filed Aug. 25, charge all five with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and trying to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. Justice announced the charges in February (see 2002120031).
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U.S. citizens Nicholas Fuchs and Robert Thwaites, both of Dallas; Nicholas Hovan of New York City; and Daniel Ray Lane of McKinney, Texas, along with Chinese citizen Zhenyu Wang, also of Dallas, allegedly discussed buying petroleum from Iran and obscuring the oil’s origins to complete shipments to a Chinese company. They allegedly planned to use an offshore Swiss bank account to move funds related to the transaction, create a Polish shell company to help complete the shipment and bribe a Chinese government official to hide that the oil was of Iranian origin. Justice said the five planned two shipments of oil per month, with an expected monthly profit of $28 million.
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