The Bureau of Industry and Security this week revoked the export privileges for Texas resident Claudia Delgadillo for her role in illegally concealing, buying and facilitating the “transportation and concealment” of rifles and handguns from the U.S. to Mexico. BIS said Delgadillo was convicted Oct. 9, 2019, and was sentenced to four years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $100 assessment. BIS denied Delgadillo's export privileges for 10 years from the date of conviction.
Five Russian nationals and two oil traders were charged in a 12-count indictment unsealed Oct. 19 for their role in a global procurement, smuggling and money laundering network, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. The Russian nationals are Yury Orekhov, Artem Uss, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov. The oil traders are Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce and Juan Carlos Soto. The oil traders allegedly brokered illegal oil deals for a Venezuelan state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, as part of the scheme.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut charged a group of European individuals and entities with violating U.S. export laws by trying to ship a dual-use export-controlled item to Russia, the office announced Oct. 19, the day after the indictment was unsealed. The investigation was coordinated by the Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency group that also works with other countries to enforce U.S. sanctions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed the temporary denial order for Moscow-based air cargo carrier Aviastar. BIS first suspended the export privileges of the Russian cargo charter airline in April (see 2204210043), barring it from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The agency renewed the denial order for another 180 days after finding Aviastar continued to illegally operate aircraft subject to the EAR, including for flights between Russia and China.
Daniel Rendon Herrera, a Colombia citizen, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leading a paramilitary, multibillion-dollar drug organization known as the Clan del Golfo and 15 years for conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Oct. 17. Herrera also was ordered to pay $45.75 million in forfeiture. Since the late 1990s, Herrera led the AUC then later founded and led the CDG, the successor to the AUC, DOJ said. The AUC was a paramilitary and drug-trafficking organization, designated in 2001.
French global building materials manufacturer Lafarge along with its Syrian subsidiary, Lafarge Cement Syria, pleaded guilty on Oct. 18 to conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham and the al-Nusrah Front, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. Both ISIS and ANF are sanctioned foreign terrorist organizations. Immediately following the guilty pleas, Judge William Kuntz sentenced the companies to probation terms and financial penalties. The companies will pay $90.78 million in criminal fines and $687 million in forfeiture, totaling $777.78 million.
Laboratory equipment distributor Intertech Trading Corp. was sentenced on Oct. 17 to pay a total fine of $140,000 for failing to file export information on shipments to Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire announced. Intertech was ordered to pay the maximum fine of $10,000 per count for 14 counts of failure to file the export information required.
The State Department announced penalties on one person and three entities and their subsidiaries for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The agency in a notice said the parties transferred items subject to multilateral control lists that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The State Department barred them from making certain purchases of items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act and will suspend any current export licenses used by the entities. The agency also will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The restrictions will remain in place for two years from the Oct. 3 effective date.
U.K. businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was indicted Oct. 11 for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, wire fraud connected to funding Deripaska's American properties and working to expatriate Deripaska's U.S.-based artwork through misrepresentations, DOJ announced. The charges stem from the work of Task Force KleptoCapture, the law enforcement group tasked with enforcing the U.S.'s sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Eddy Johan Coopmans, a Ponte Vedra, Florida, resident, pleaded guilty Oct. 4 to conspiring to illegally export controlled technology out of the U.S. in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced. The technology included space grade field programmable gate array circuits meant for Russia and China. Cooper, along with an unnamed foreign national, communicated with individuals the pair believed would help them smuggle the technology, then paid them around $1.2 million and made false statements to government regulators, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Oct. 5. Coopmans was indicted in 2019 and faces up to five years in federal prison.