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.

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.

Li Chen, formerly of Dublin, Ohio, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for conspiring to steal medical-related trade secrets and sell them to China, the Justice Department said Feb. 1. Chen worked with her husband to try to steal scientific trade secrets related to “exosomes and exosome isolation” from Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Research Institute, the agency said. Both Chen and her husband, Yu Zhou, worked in medical research labs at the institute but received “benefits” from the Chinese government and applied to several Chinese-run talent plans, which are used to transfer foreign research and technology to the Chinese government. She also is accused of setting up a company in China to sell exosome “isolation kits,” based on the trade secrets.Chen will forfeit about $1.25 million, 500,000 shares of common stock of Avalon GloboCare Corp. and 400 shares of common stock of GenExosome Technologies Inc., the Justice Department said. She was also ordered to pay $2.6 million restitution. Her husband pleaded guilty to similar charges and is awaiting sentencing.

The State Department is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation, the agency said in a notice Feb. 2. The new amounts will apply only to penalties assessed on or after Feb. 2, the agency said.