The Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered Bahrain to pay more than $270 million in legal fees and damages to Iranian state-owned Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, The Washington Post reported. The win for the Iranian banks came after Bahrain's forced closure of Future Bank in 2015, the result of allegations that the institution facilitated money laundering and the evasion of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. A three-arbitrator panel at the court held that Bahrain violated its own banking policies, motivated primarily by a political animus toward Iran. Future Bank, established in Bahrain in 2004 with the backing of the two Iranian banks, was forced to close its doors a few weeks after the Iran nuclear agreement was signed by Iran and the U.S, along with five other world power countries.
Jorge Orencel, owner and operator of Maryland-based export business Sumtech, pleaded guilty on Dec. 17 to attempting to smuggle goods out of the U.S. without the required export license, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said. Sumtech, under Orencel's leadership. specialized in distributing "high technology laboratory devices," across the globe, but in particular to South America, Asia and the Middle East. Orencel was busted for shipping ionization chambers to Hong Kong, while telling the company he bought the chambers from that he intended to ship the goods to Argentina. Orencel also intentionally undervalued the chambers themselves, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Jose Rafael Vasquez, a resident of Dallas, was sentenced on Dec. 15 to 63 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for attempting to export firearms, firearm magazines and thousands of rounds of ammunition to Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas said. Vasquez attempted to leave the U.S. at the Laredo Port of Entry into Mexico in October 2020, when law enforcement found bundles of goods zip-tied to the bottom of his vehicle containing ammunition. After further inspecting the car, border officials found three AK-47 rifles, eight semi-automatic handguns, 16 handgun magazines and over 4,700 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition inside the vehicle, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a massive bribery scheme that has already seen punishments doled out to Brazil-based global construction conglomerate Odebrecht S.A., the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said. The conglomerate pleaded guilty in 2016 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for a bribery and money laundering scheme in Panama. Luis Martinelli Linares, Ricardo's brother, pleaded guilty on Dec. 2 to the same misconduct.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined an unnamed person about $133,000 after they violated U.S. sanctions against Iran, OFAC said in a Dec. 8 notice. OFAC said the person accepted payment on behalf of an Iran-based company selling cement clinker to another company for a project in a third country.
The U.S. concluded the forfeiture of two large weapons shipments and one large cache of oil products from Iran following two cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice announced Dec. 7. In 2019 and 2020, the U.S. Navy seized 171 Iranian surface-to-air missiles and eight anti-tank missiles, along with around 1.1 million barrels of Iranian petroleum products in the Arabian Sea in the largest-ever forfeiture of fuel and weapons shipments from Iran, DOJ said. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps organized the weapons shipments, designated for the Houthi militia in Yemen. The Navy seized the weapons from two vessels during routine maritime security operations, DOJ said. The petroleum products were taken from four foreign-flagged tankers in or around the Arabian Sea en route to Venezuela, DOJ said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 30 revoked export privileges for five people after they illegally exported weapons or ammunition and for another person for their ties to a foreign terrorist organization.
Muhammad Uzair Khalid of Garland, Texas, pleaded guilty Nov. 23 to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods, for illegally importing counterfeit vaping products from China, the Department of Justice said. The trafficked goods include counterfeit vaping atomizers, labels, boxes and bags for vaping-related products. Uzair admitted to regularly communicating with Chinese manufacturers about the counterfeit vaping products, including on methods to imitate the branding and logos of the well-known U.S. vape companies, DOJ said. The counterfeit goods were seized during a 2019 search of Uzair's storefront by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations as part of a broader initiative by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA and state and local health departments to counter lung-related diseases associated with unregulated vaping products.
The Commerce Department again renewed a temporary export denial order for Mahan Airways because the airline continues to violate the order and the Export Administration Regulations, according to a Nov. 17 notice. The Iranian airline has been on the banned list since 2008. The latest renewal is for 180 days from Nov. 17.
Dali Bagrou, of Alpharetta, Georgia, and owner of World Mining and Oil Supply, was sentenced to 51 months in prison accompanied by three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. national security laws, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. World Mining was sentenced to five years' probation.