A British Virgin Islands company agreed to plead guilty to charges related to the evasion of sanctions on North Korea, the Department of Justice said in an Aug. 31 news release. The company, Yang Ban Corporation, admitted it “deceived banks in the U.S. into processing transactions for North Korean customers,” using “financial cutouts and front companies,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said. In addition to the guilty plea, Yang Ban will pay a penalty of more than $673,000, which includes a fine of about $112,000.
A researcher at a California university is being investigated for trying to transfer sensitive U.S. software or technical data to a Chinese company on the U.S. Entity List, the Justice Department said Aug. 28. Guan Lei, a Chinese national and researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, was arrested for allegedly destroying evidence on a hard drive that may have implicated him in the illegal software transfer, the agency said. The Justice Department said it is investigating whether Guan, of Alhambra, California, tried to send the software to China’s National University of Defense Technology.
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).
Five people are facing federal charges over allegations of illegal filing of drawback claims, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said in a news release. An Aug. 12 grand jury indictment, which was unsealed Aug. 25, charged Dale Behm of Shell Knob, Missouri; Yong Heng Liang of Daly City, California; Joshua Stanka of Katy, Texas; Joshua Clark of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas; and Michael Choy of Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, “with conspiracy, wire fraud, and related charges related to an alleged scheme to submit fraudulent claims for refunds on import duties,” the release said.
The head of the Bureau of Industry and Security on Aug. 19 affirmed a more than $30 million penalty against a shipping company for export violations after ordering a judge to review the fine for being too high. Commerce Acting Undersecretary for Industry and Security Cordell Hull said in March the fine was perhaps disproportionate to the violations committed by Singapore-based Nordic Maritime Pte. Ltd and chairman Morten Innhaug (see 2003170040), but the judge “affirmed” the penalty. Although Hull said the administrative law judge’s “narrow analysis” for the reasoning behind the recommended penalty was “erroneous,” he said BIS will accept the fine. “BIS believes the penalty should be affirmed in its entirety,” Hull wrote.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued an order temporarily denying export privileges for three Indonesian companies and three people for illegally exporting U.S. aircraft parts to Iran’s Mahan Air. In an Aug. 20 press release, BIS said the companies operate an “international procurement scheme” for the sanctioned Iranian airline and will be barred from exporting or receiving U.S.-origin goods for 180 days. The suspension may be renewed.
Two U.S. citizens, Muzzamil Zaidi and Asim Naqvi, and Pakistani national Ali Chawla were charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after they allegedly arranged for transport of U.S. currency from the U.S. to Iran for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2018 and 2019, the Justice Department said Aug. 19. After the U.S. sanctioned Khamenei in 2019 (see 1906240046), all three allegedly were involved in collecting U.S. currency from donors through a “religious tax” authorized by Khamenei, sometimes transporting the money first to Iraq, then Iran. The Justice Department alleges Zaidi and Naqvi structured the shipments to “avoid reporting requirements.” Zaidi, who resides in Iran; Naqvi, who lives in Houston; and Chawla, who lives in Iran, each face a maximum 20-year prison sentence for violating the IEEPA.
Flir Systems, a U.S.-based producer of thermal imaging cameras, is being investigated for possible export control violations, the company said in an Aug. 6 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Flir said it voluntarily disclosed the potential violations to the State, Commerce and Justice departments in 2017.
The U.S. seized its largest-ever shipment of Iranian fuel aboard four tankers illegally shipping oil to Venezuela, according to an Aug. 14 Justice Department press release. The agency said the U.S. seized about 1.116 million barrels of petroleum, part of a multimillion-dollar fuel shipment from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The U.S. filed the forfeiture warrant July 2 (see 2007060012).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a U.S. person $5,000 for buying jewelry, meals, clothing, hotel rooms and other gifts for a person on the Specially Designated Nationals List. The U.S. person, who OFAC did not name, was a civilian hire stationed by the U.S. Army at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, during the violations, according to an Aug. 11 notice.