The owners of a Miami freight forwarder were sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of $7,500 each for illegally exporting live fish to Colombia. Alvaro Cortes, Olga Rodriguez and their company, Planet Express Cargo & Courier Corp. (PECC), falsified shipping manifests and failed to declare the exports to CBP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Justice Department said Aug. 10. The agency said Cortes and Rodriguez likely exported more than 1,000 illegal shipments of wildlife to Colombia. They had previously pleaded guilty.
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.
The president and sales representative for a U.S. electronics company were arrested for illegal exports to Hong Kong and China, the Department of Justice said Aug. 6. President Chong Sik Yu and employee Yunseo Lee used America Techma Inc. (ATI) to allegedly ship electronics components to the region, violating the Export Control Reform Act. Both were also arrested on wire fraud and money laundering charges.
A Florida man was sentenced to 33 months in prison after illegally exporting more than 1,600 firearms parts, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said Aug. 5. From 2011 to 2018, Vladimir Volgaev shipped barrels, slides, receivers and frames from the U.S. to Ukraine, violating the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, ICE said. The gun parts were later used to build firearms, including handguns and rifles, the agency said. Along with the prison sentence, Volgaev was ordered to forfeit $6,835 from the sales of the parts.
A national law firm and a Washington, D.C., legal staffing company will pay $56,500 after the Justice Department said they misinterpreted citizenship requirements in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The firm, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, and the staffing company, Law Resources Inc., excluded dual citizens and “work-authorized non-U.S. citizens” when hiring temporary employees, screening them out in the recruiting process, the Justice Department said July 23. The firm and company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act's anti-discrimination provision.
The Department of Justice issued a forfeiture complaint against four companies that allegedly laundered money on behalf of U.S.-sanctioned North Korean banks, the agency said July 23. The complaint calls for the forfeiture of more than $2 million used to buy goods for the North Korean government, the Justice Department said. The four unnamed companies were part of a money-laundering scheme involving three sanctioned entities: Velmur Management Pte. Ltd, Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co. and multiple branches of North Korea’s Foreign Trade bank. “This complaint illuminates how a global money laundering network coordinates with front companies to move North Korean money through the United States,” acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said in a statement. “This case demonstrates that we will use all tools … to target companies that harm U.S. national security, regardless of where they are doing business.”
A Lebanese national was sentenced to 42 months in prison for conspiring to illegally export U.S. drone parts and technology to Hezbollah, the Justice Department said July 20. Usama Darwich Hamade violated the international Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Export Administration Regulations, the Arms Export Controls Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations when he tried to illegally export a range of U.S.-origin items, including “inertial measurement units,” digital compasses, a jet engine, piston engines and recording binoculars. During an investigation, the Justice Department said the U.S. discovered Hezbollah was the “ultimate beneficiary” of the exports.
The Department of Justice charged a California electronics company, its president and an employee with trying to illegally export chemicals to a Chinese company on the U.S. Entity List. President Tao Jiang, employee Bohr Winn-Shih and the company, Broad Tech System Inc., ordered the chemicals from a Rhode Island company before trying to ship the items to China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 55th Research Institute (aka NEDI) (see 2006030032), the Justice Department said July 20. The shipment would have violated the Export Control Reform Act.
A Tennessee resident who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and also an Iranian citizen was sentenced to 46 months in prison for smuggling more than $100,000 worth of items from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said July 16. Aiden Davidson, manager of New Hampshire-based Golden Gate International, pleaded guilty in March (see 2003030055) to being involved in at least 10 exports of containers of industrial goods and equipment to Iran, which included motors, pumps and valves, the Justice Department said. Documents associated with the shipments falsely listed a business in Turkey as the ultimate consignee. Davidson received about $1 million in wire transfers for the exports between 2014 and 2017. He was arrested in September 2018.
The Justice Department charged two people for allegedly helping a Brazil construction company bribe government officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a July 6 news release said. Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares aided a “massive” bribery and money laundering scheme by Odebrecht S.A., which previously pleaded guilty to paying more than $700 million in bribes to government officials and others to retain business and secure contracts (see 1911210023 and 1910150030), DOJ said.