A Tennessee resident who is an Iranian citizen pleaded guilty to smuggling more than $110,000 worth of goods from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said in a March 3 news release. Aiden Davidson, manager of New Hampshire-based Golden Gate International, used the company to export $100,000 worth of motors, pumps, valves and other goods to Iran-based Babazedeh Trading Co. from 2016 to 2017, the Justice Department said. In another instance, Davidson helped export $13,000 worth of displacement pumps to Iran. In both cases, shipping documents listed the ultimate consignee as a company in Turkey.
Two Chinese nationals sanctioned by the Treasury Department were charged with laundering more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrency, the Justice Department said March 2. Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong, who were added to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals List earlier this week (see 2003020042), were charged with money laundering conspiracy and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, the Justice Department said. They allegedly worked with North Korean cyber hackers, who stole nearly $250 million worth of virtual currency, and never registered with the U.S.’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network despite conducting business in the U.S.
An Ontario resident was arrested on smuggling charges after illegally importing two firearm suppressors, according to a Feb. 28 notice from the Canada Border Services Agency. Authorities discovered the package at a mail processing center in Toronto before referring the item for “further investigation” when it found the firearm parts. Authorities also searched an Ontario residence as part of the investigation, finding six long guns, four handguns and other illegal firearm parts.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed a Thai national who pleaded guilty to illegally exporting firearms to Thailand in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, ICE said in a Feb. 26 news release. Apichart Srivaranon bought firearms parts online from U.S. gun manufacturers and had the parts shipped to addresses in the U.S. to “co-conspirators.” Once his co-conspirators received the shipments, Srivaranon told them to repackage the parts and falsely label and declare the contents as “spare parts, bicycle parts, fishing parts, or toy parts” before shipping them to Thailand through the U.S. Postal Service and private shipping companies, ICE said. Srivaranon also told them to alternate the frequency, addresses of the shipments and the value of the contents to “avoid detection.” The parts included components for AR-15 and M-16 military-style assault rifles. Srivaranon was removed from U.S. custody to Thailand Feb. 24.
A Swiss telecommunications and information technology organization agreed to pay nearly $8 million for violations of U.S. terrorism sanctions, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a Feb. 26 notice. The organization, Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA), committed more than 9,000 violations of the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations when it provided U.S.-origin services and software to airlines designated by OFAC.
A U.S.-sanctioned leader of a Guatemalan drug trafficking group was sentenced to 23 years in prison, the Justice Department said in a Feb. 24 press release. In 2010, Waldemar Lorenzana-Lima was listed as a specially designated narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act due to “significant roles” in international trafficking. Lorenzana-Lima and his family allegedly used a family business and agricultural holdings in Guatemala as a front to move the drugs through Central America.
The Justice Department settled its lawsuit with Chancery Staffing Solutions over claims of improper screening of non-U.S. citizens, the DOJ said in a Feb. 18 news release. The suit involved allegations that “the staffing company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when, at a law firm client’s directive, it screened out work authorized non-U.S. citizens and U.S. citizens with dual citizenship from a document review project without a lawful basis.”
A Texas businessman and former procurement officer for Venezuela’s state-owned and sanctioned energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., was sentenced to 70 months in prison after scheming to secure corrupt PdVSA contracts, the Justice Department said in a Feb. 19 press release. Alfonzo Eliezer Gravina Munoz laundered the proceeds of a bribery scheme involving U.S.-based companies and Venezuelan government officials in exchange for contracts with Citgo Petroleum Corp., a Houston-based subsidiary of PdVSA, the Justice Department said. Munoz was also ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Three former executives were charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after they tried to bribe Indonesian government officials to secure contracts, the Justice department said in a Feb. 18 press release. The agency charged Reza Moenaf and Eko Sulianto -- two executives of the Indonesian subsidiary of the French power and transportation company Alstom -- and Junji Kusunoki -- a former executive with Japanese trading company Marubeni Corporation -- with FCPA violations and money laundering. The agency said the charges are part of a “wide-ranging investigation” into corrupt practices by Alstom and Marubeni, which has resulted in guilty pleas from five other people and the two companies.
The State Department announced penalties on foreign entities for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act, the agency said in a notice. The entities transferred items subject to multilateral control lists -- such as the Wassenaar Arrangement -- that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The entities mentioned in the notice include companies based in China, Iraq, Russia and Turkey and are barred from purchasing items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act. In addition, the State Department will suspend any current export licenses used by the companies; State will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations; and government agencies are barred from entering into procurement contracts with them. The measures took effect Feb. 3.