Dali Bagrou and his company World Mining and Oil Supply pleaded guilty on Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to violating the Export Control Reform Act, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said in a press release. The scheme started when a Russian state-owned enterprise began working with Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin, general director of Russia-based energy company KS Engineering, to buy a power turbine from a U.S.-based manufacturer for around $17.3 million, the release said.

Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, an Iranian national living in Montreal, was indicted by a grand jury July 30 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for illegally exporting laboratory equipment from the U.S. to Iran, the Department of Justice said. Kafrani co-owned Prolife Global, based in Canada, where he sought to purchase spectrometry equipment to ultimately ship to Iran, DOJ alleged. After failing to get one U.S. company to ship the equipment to Montreal, Kafrani found a second American company that sent the merchandise to Canada, DOJ said. Kafrani then sent the equipment to the United Arab Emirates, then reexported it to Iran, it said.

A federal court ordered an oil tanker to be forfeited to the U.S. after it helped illegally ship oil to North Korea in violation of U.S. and United Nations sanctions, the Justice Department said July 30. The agency also said sanctions evasion charges are pending against Kwek Kee Sen, a Singaporean national and the owner of the ship, who remains at large.

Stargate Apparel, Rivstar Apparel and their former owner and CEO, Joseph Bailey, settled a False Claims Act case with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York over the companies' use of inaccurate invoices to underreport their clothing imports, the Department of Justice said July 28. Under the settlement, Bailey and the New York-headquartered companies admitted to engaging in the fraudulent schemes. Bailey will pay $3.2 million while the employee stock ownership plan that owns the two companies will pay a combined $2.8 million, DOJ said. Bailey and the companies led two “double invoicing” schemes 2004-2015, according to the complaint.

Ahmad Sami, Caesar Sami and Rania Alkanj, all of Corona, California, pleaded guilty July 28 to failing to assist customs officers, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York said. The trio drove or attempted to drive multiple vehicles into the U.S. without declaring that the vehicles were intended to be sold there. The three owe the U.S. $20,681.09, $15,735.99 and $965.71, respectively. Each defendant attempted to drive several cars across different points of entry in the U.S., including the Blue Water Bridge Port of Entry in Port Huron, Michigan, and the Lewiston Bridge Point of Entry in New York.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered Hobby Lobby to forfeit a cuneiform tablet engraved with a portion of the epic of Gilgamesh, the Justice Department announced July 27. Hobby Lobby bought the tablet, dubbed the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet and originating in what is now Iraq, from an international auction house for display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement seized the tablet in September 2019, as it was alleged to have been illegally brought into the U.S. An antiques dealer and a U.S. cuneiform export shipped it by international post without declaring the contents, the release said. “Forfeiture of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet demonstrates the Department’s continued commitment to eliminating smuggled cultural property from the U.S. art market,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Thwarting trade in smuggled goods by seizing and forfeiting an ancient artifact shows the department’s dedication to using all available tools, including forfeiture, to ensure justice.”

Iranian nationals Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori were indicted July 13 in New York federal court for attempting to commit kidnapping, sanctions violations, bank and wire fraud, and money laundering, the Department of Justice said. The four allegedly conspired to kidnap a Brooklyn, New York, journalist for “mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring changes to the regime's laws and practices,” DOJ said. Farahani, an Iranian intelligence officer, along with the other three, all Iranian intelligence assets, allegedly plotted to lure the journalist to a third country and kidnap the victim. Niloufar Bahadorifar, an Iranian living in California, allegedly provided financial and other services to support the plot, and faces additional charges. All are charged with a conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Arif Ugur, a Turkish national formerly living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was indicted July 21 for his role in illegally shipping defense technical data to Turkey for the production of U.S. military parts, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release. Ugur's actions were found to have violated the Arms Export Control Act. The Department of Defense found that some goods were substandard and not fit for use by the U.S. military, the release said. As sole managing officer of the Anatolia Group, Ugur, beginning in 2015 acquired various DOD contracts to provide the military with machine parts and hardware items, the Department of Justice alleged. The contracts required that the parts be manufactured in the U.S. Ugur claimed Anatolia made its parts stateside, when it actually made them in Turkey, Justice said. Ugur then oversaw the shipment of DOD technical data to Anatolia's facilities in Turkey -- a move that required an export license seeing as they were subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulation and the United States Munitions List. He did not acquire these licenses, violating the Arms Export Control Act, Justice said.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a New York online money transmitter and provider more than $1.4 million for violating U.S. sanctions on the Crimea region of Ukraine, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Payoneer came to a settlement agreement with OFAC after illegally processing more than 2,000 payments for parties in sanctioned countries, OFAC said in a July notice. The fine was OFAC’s third highest this year.

Arash Yousefi Jam, an Iranian national residing in Ontario, pleaded guilty to exporting U.S. goods to Iran (see 2101130010), the Department of Justice said July 22. Jam worked with others to obtain goods from at least three U.S. companies and ship them to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations. The goods included nine electrical discharge boards, one CPU board, two servomotors and two railroad crankshafts, DOJ said. The goods were shipped through the United Arab Emirates and payment was made from banks outside Iran. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 14.