The Bureau of Industry and Security denied a New Jersey man export privileges after he illegally exported electronic components to Russia, BIS said in a March 8 order. BIS denied Alexander Brazhnikov export privileges for 15 years. Brazhnikov pleaded guilty to the charges in 2015 and was sentenced to 70 months in prison in 2016 (see 1607010044).

The Department of Justice indicted eight people on charges related to an international drug trafficking conspiracy, which included attempts to commit export violations, the agency said Feb. 26. The eight, including Debbie Mercer and Kayleigh Moffett, both of Oklahoma City; Federico Machado of Florida; and Carlos Villaurrutia of McAllen, Texas, allegedly worked to buy and illegally register aircraft under foreign corporations for export to other countries, Justice said. Some aircraft were used by transnational criminal groups in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to smuggle “large quantities” of cocaine into the U.S., with sales proceeds sent back to Mexico to buy more aircraft and cocaine, the Justice Department alleged.

A Chinese businessman in Hong Kong allegedly conspired to steal technology from General Electric to create his own startup company, the Justice Department said Feb. 26. The agency charged Chi Lung Winsman Ng with plotting with a GE engineer to steal trade secrets from the company to manufacture and sell “silicon carbide metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors,” or small electronic semiconductors. Ng and the engineer allegedly developed a business plan for their startup that they planned to present to potential Chinese investors for what they said would become a $100 million company. The Justice Department did not name the engineer. It said it has “no evidence that there was an illegal” technology transfer to any Chinese company and said it has not yet arrested Ng. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

In a case against an Iranian banker accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, Judge Alison Nathan for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York lambasted federal prosecutors over their mishandling of evidence and dereliction of responsibility. Stopping short of finding them guilty of knowingly withholding crucial information or intentionally misrepresenting facts to the court, Nathan in a Feb. 22 ruling called for a full investigation of the prosecutors' actions by the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and said she hopes the government's reforms on evidence handling training will ensure that similar action is not repeated.

The Bureau of Industry and Security issued orders temporarily denying export privileges for two people involved in illegal exports. Jesse Rodriguez was convicted Jan. 16, 2019, of helping to sell controlled ammunition -- including .223 and 7.62 caliber ammunition -- from the U.S., BIS said in a Feb. 19 order. Rodriguez was sentenced to 30 months in prison, one year of supervised release and a $100 assessment. BIS denied Rodriguez’s export privileges for five years from the date of conviction. Fahad Saleem Kharbey was convicted May 31, 2019, of illegally exporting controlled firearms and magazines from the U.S. to the United Arab Emirates, BIS said in another Feb. 19 order. Kharbey was sentenced to 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $200 assessment. BIS denied Kharbey’s export privileges for seven years from the date of conviction.

The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked export privileges for a Chicago resident for an illegal export to the United Arab Emirates, BIS said in a Feb. 17 order. BIS said Siddharth Bhatt was convicted Sept. 16, 2020, of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after he tried to export a controlled U.S.-origin thermal imaging camera to the UAE without a required license. Bhatt was sentenced to 48 months of probation and was fined about $2,500. BIS revoked Bhatt’s export privileges for 10 years from the date of his conviction, and revoked any BIS-issued licenses in which he had an interest at the time of his conviction.

An Atlanta-based Bitcoin service provider was fined more than $500,000 for allowing people in sanctioned countries to use its services. BitPay committed more than 2,000 sanctions violations when it allowed people in Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Syria and the Crimea region of Ukraine to use digital currency on the company’s platform to transact with U.S. parties, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said Feb. 18. The company allowed the transactions even though it had information that revealed the people were located in sanctioned regions, OFAC said, adding that “deficiencies” in the company’s compliance program led to the violations. The agency said BitPay allowed $129,000 worth of digital currency transactions that should have been blocked.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies says federal prosecutors are withholding key evidence that could help exonerate the company from charges of bank fraud, sanctions violations, racketeering and trade secret theft. In a letter filed Feb. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Huawei argues that the government must turn over the exculpatory information that undermines allegations that Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou defrauded numerous global financial institutions by lying about its relationship with its Iranian affiliate Skycom. In the letter, Huawei's defense team said it needs more of the government's information about Huawei's communications with these financial institutions, particularly London-based HSBC. The defense team claims that Huawei was transparent about its relationship with Skycom and that currently withheld government information could prove that.

An Australian man pleaded guilty after trying to help North Korea export weapons in violation of United Nations sanctions, Reuters reported Feb. 10. Chan Han Choi, a civil engineer born in South Korea, previously denied the charges but reversed course this week when he pleaded guilty to brokering a service for the sale of arms from Pyongyang and said he tried to export coal from North Korea to Indonesia, the report said. Choi’s sentencing in Australia is scheduled for March 19.

The U.S. moved to seize all oil aboard a Liberia-flagged vessel, the M/T Achilleas, via a forfeiture complaint filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the oil is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC-Qods Force, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. The complaint alleges the IRGC and IRGC-Qods Force schemed to deliver the oil to a customer abroad and that the origins of the oil were disguised using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents, and other means to trick the owners of the Achilleas into transporting the oil, the Department of Justice announced in a Feb. 3 news release.