Four Chinese nationals have been indicted for financial dealings with North Korean companies sanctioned for involvement in the production of weapons of mass destruction, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
Ma Xiaohong (馬曉紅), the head of Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co, and three top executives of the Chinese company were indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey, the department said in a statement.
The other three executives indicted were identified as general manager Zhou Jianshu (周建舒), deputy general manager Hong Jinhua (洪錦花) and financial manager Luo Chuanxu (洛傳旭).
“Through the use of more than 20 front companies, the defendants are alleged to have sought to obscure illicit financial dealings on behalf of sanctioned North Korean entities that were involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” US Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division John Demers said.
“Ma, her company and her employees tried to defraud the United States by evading sanctions restrictions and doing business with proliferators of weapons of mass destruction,” US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito said.
A department spokesman said that the four executives were not in US custody and were believed to reside in China.
The indictment said that the company was based in Dandong in Liaoning Province along the border with North Korea and its primary business was import and export trade with North Korea.
The firm allegedly set up front companies to work with North Korea-based Korea Kwangson Banking Corp, which has ties to two other sanctioned North Korean entities — Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corp.
Tanchon and Hyoksin are subject to US sanctions because of their links with Korea Mining Development Trading Co, which the US considers North Korea’s premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.
Ma, Zhou, Hong and Luo face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a US$1 million fine for breaching the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
They face a maximum of five years in prison for conspiracy to breach the act and a maximum of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 30 agreed to a resumption of their dialogue at an impromptu meeting in the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS