The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced a penalty of $1,104,408 against a U.S. citizen for 75 violations of sanctions targeting Iran. Between 2019 and 2022, they orchestrated a scheme to purchase, renovate, and operate a 19-suite hotel on the Caspian Sea in Iran.
An Indian national arrested in Miami was indicted for conspiring to export controlled aviation components with dual civilian and military applications to end users in Russia, in violation of the Export Control Reform Act. Sanjay Kaushik, 57, is also charged with attempting to illegally export a navigation and flight control system from Oregon to Russia through India, and with making false statements in connection with an export. The November 20 indictment was handed down in the District of Oregon.
An indictment was unsealed charging the former CEO of a bitcoin mining form with bribery violations and his company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. The November 18 indictment charges Zhengming Pan, former CEO of 500.com (now BIT Mining Ltd.), a Chinese national, with multiple violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Simultaneously, BIT Mining Ltd. has agreed to resolve investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning related FCPA violations, involving bribery of Japanese officials. …
A Venezuelan man was sentenced to 30 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to illegally procure aircraft parts from the United States to service PdVSA’s aircraft fleet in Venezuela, in violation of U.S. sanctions and export controls.
The owner of a California technology company pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act for his role in a transnational, multi-million-dollar scheme to secure and illegally export dual-use semiconductors and other sensitive technology sanctioned entities in Russia.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has reached a settlement with New York City Based M&M Wireless Communications, and its principals over 94 violations of U.S. export regulations between 2019 and 2021. According to the BIS, M&M Wireless and its owners misrepresented key details in multiple export shipments of consumer electronics to the United Arab Emirates.
A citizen of Ukraine last residing in Estonia, was sentenced to 33 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, ffor his role in a scheme to violate U.S. export laws and regulations by attempting to smuggle a dual-use export-controlled item to Russia. A jig grinder is a high-precision grinding machine system that does not require a license to export to European Union countries, but does require a license for export and reexport to Russia because of its potential application in nuclear proliferation and defense programs.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a $178,421 settlement with American Life Insurance Company (ALICO), a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. While Snoopy may no longer shill for the insurer, persistent compliance personnel kept an over-eager sales agent from creating greater consequences. ALICO agreed to settle its potential civil liability for 2,331 apparent violations of OFAC sanctions on Iran. The apparent violations related to insurance policies provided to entities in the United Arab Emirates that were owned or controlled by the Government of Iran.
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Export Enforcement published an updated version of Don’t Let This Happen to You!, a compendium of case examples highlighting BIS criminal and administrative enforcement efforts. The publication was last updated in July 2024.
Telefónica Venezolana C.A. a Venezuela-based subsidiary of Telefónica S.A. a publicly traded global telecommunications operator based in Spain, will pay over $85.2 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a scheme to bribe government officials in Venezuela to receive preferential access to U.S. dollars in a currency auction. Telefónica Venezolana entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in connection with a criminal information filed today in the Southern District of New York charging the company with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
A Turkish National was arrested for his involvement in a complex scheme to violate and evade U.S. sanctions related to petroleum products from Venezuela and Iran.. The scheme included obfuscating the identities of tankers moving the oil by re-naming and re-flagging vessels, covering vessel names with paint or blankets, and turning off the electronics that track vessels’ locations for the safety of ships and their crews
A Virginia freight forwarding firm and two executives have been charged with operating a technology transshipment service for Russian customers, routing shipments through Turkie, Finland and Kazakhstan to evade export controls. “This company allegedly used not one, not two, but three different schemes to illegally transship sensitive American technology to Russia,” said Assistant Secretary for the Department of Commerce Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Matthew S. Axelrod
A federal grand jury in Boston indicted a citizen of the People’s Republic of China for allegedly stealing trade secrets from his employer, a global investment management firm, while working in Massachusetts in 2021. Xiao Zhang, 33, of Shanghai, China, was indicted on one count of theft of trade secrets. Zhang currently remains at large overseas.
A wholesale clothing importer located in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles and two of its executives have been found guilty by a jury of avoiding the payment of more than $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing, and of running a scheme in which the company laundered money and failed to report on tax returns more than $17 million derived from cash transactions, the Justice Department announced October 30th..
A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive dual-use electronics for Russian military and intelligence services.
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a civil penalty of $500,000 against GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc., a semiconductor wafer manufacturing company headquartered in Malta, New York, and its subsidiary, GlobalFoundries U.S. 2 LLC (collectively, “GlobalFoundries”). The penalty relates to GlobalFoundries’ shipments of semiconductor wafers valued at approximately $17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor (SJS), a company on the BIS Entity List, without the requisite license or other authorization from BIS.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has publicly condemned the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent settlement with TD Bank, alleging that the $3 billion penalty agreement enables the bank to evade full accountability for its role in money-laundering activities. In a strongly worded letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Warren criticized the DOJ for structuring the settlement in a way that, she argues, shields both the bank and its executives from the full extent of legal consequences.
A sanctioned fugitive Venezuelan television news network owner has been charged for his role in a $1.2 billion scheme to launder funds corruptly obtained from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), in exchange for hundreds of millions in bribe payments to Venezuelan officials.
Reuters reports that Turkey's Halkbank has been found not to be immune from charges it helped Iran evade American sanctions. The 2nd Circuit court rejected the state-owned lender's argument that it deserved immunity.
The Pennsylvania State University located in University Park, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $1,250,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to comply with cybersecurity requirements in fifteen contracts or subcontracts involving the Department of Defense (DoD) or National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The settlement in this case provides for the whistleblower, the former chief information officer for Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, to receive a $250,000 share of the settlement amount