The State Department issued statutory debarment for 23 people for violations of the Arms Export Control Act, the agency said in a notice. The State Department stressed that they are blocked from participating in activities regulated by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including brokering activities, exports and temporary imports. The debarment period will last for three years, at which time the people can apply for reinstatement of export privileges, the agency said. If their export privileges are not reinstated, they remain debarred.

The Department of Justice charged the leaders of a sanctions-evading financial services company in Iran with wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft and sanctions violations, the agency said in a May 18 press release. PAYMENT24 CEO Seyed Sajjad Shahidian and COO Vahid Vali used the company to help Iranian citizens avoid U.S. financial sanctions against Iran, which included purchases of U.S. computer software, software licenses and computer servers. The company offered a package to help clients purchase goods and services from U.S. businesses, including a PayPal account, a fake “ID card,” a remote IP address from the United Arab Emirates and a Visa gift card. The company charged a fee to evade U.S. sanctions, the press release said.

The State Department rescinded a policy of denial for a subsidiary of BAE Systems located in Saudi Arabia, according to a notice. The policy no longer applies to BAE Systems Saudi Arabia Limited (BAES SAL), which was one of several BAES subsidiaries convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations in 2010. The State Department rescinded the denial policy after receiving a request from BAES SAL and determining the action was “in the national security and foreign policy interests” of the U.S.

The U.S. government appealed a March court decision that blocked the Trump administration from transferring oversight of 3D printing of firearms from the State Department to the Commerce Department (see 2003090029). The appeal, filed May 5, aims to lift the temporary injunction, which the administration has said is based on a misunderstanding of export regulations (see 2002270014).

Maltese authorities charged five men for violating European Union sanctions on Libya, according to an April 25 notice from the Malta Police Force. The arrests, which resulted from “weeks of investigations,” came after the men allegedly used a Malta-registered company to illegally export two ships to Libya. The men pleaded not guilty.

A South Korean bank will pay $86 million after admitting violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, which included processing transactions for sanctioned parties and violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Justice Department said April 20. The Industrial Bank of Korea did not maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and processed more than $1 billion worth of transactions for sanctioned Iranian entities, the Justice Department said. This was partly due to the bank’s lack of an automated screening program and its poorly trained compliance staff, which fell “months behind” their manual review of transactions. Despite self-disclosing some violations, the bank failed to inform the Treasury Department of at least $990 million worth of illegal transactions, the Justice Department said.

A United Kingdom bank was fined more than £20 million by the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation for violating Ukraine-related sanctions, OFSI said in a notice released March 31. OFSI said Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) made more than 100 loans to Denizbank A.S., which is owned by Russia-based Sberbank, an entity sanctioned by the European Union. While some of the loans qualified for an EU exemption under the sanctions regime, about 70 of the loans did not qualify. OFSI estimated the value of the 70 loans at about $290 million and deemed the case “most serious.”

Fifteen former and current Venezuela government officials were charged by the U.S. Justice Department for corruption and drug trafficking, including several charges for sanctions and export control violations, the agency said in a March 26 news release. In addition to narco-terrorism charges against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, separate indictments charge Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah, Venezuela’s vice president for the economy; Joselit Ramirez Camacho, superintendent of crypto currency; and Samark Lopez Bello, a Venezuelan businessman, with evasion of U.S. sanctions. Maddah and Camacho worked with U.S. people and companies to provide flight services to benefit Maduro’s 2018 presidential campaign, which violated U.S. sanctions against Maduro’s election efforts.

A Pennsylvania chemicals company agreed to pay a $450,000 fine for failing to notify the Drug Enforcement Administration of certain imports and exports, according to a March 25 Justice Department news release. The company, Ungerer & Company, violated reporting obligations on a “number of occasions” after it completed international shipments of chemicals that can be used to “manufacture illicit controlled substances.” In addition to the fine, the company agreed to a three-year agreement with the DEA to implement remedial measures, including submissions of “certain delinquent forms on its shipments” and the implementation of a system to train employees to avoid future reporting violations. The company must also submit quarterly certifications to the DEA to prove it is complying with reporting obligations.

A U.S. court upheld a conviction for Global Metallurgy CEO Erdal Kuyumcu, affirming he violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by exporting specialty metals to Iran (see 1606150015), according to court records filed March 17. Kuyumcu, who was hired by a Turkish company to source the U.S.-origin metals, was “fully aware” that the exports would be shipped to a company in Iran, the court said. The court also said Kuyumcu, who originally pleaded guilty, “has failed to show that there is a reasonable probability that he would not have pleaded guilty,” which was necessary under the appeal.