An Iranian national faces several fraud-related charges for his involvement with a joint project with the Iranian and Venezuelan governments to violate U.S. sanctions, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 31 press release. Bahram Karimi was a member of a committee that oversaw the construction of “thousands” of housing units in Venezuela with help from Iran, the agency said. Karimi worked with others to defraud U.S. banks by hiding the role of Iranian parties in payments sent through the U.S. banking system, which violated U.S. economic sanctions. Karimi made at least 15 payments worth about $115 million. Karimi was also charged with making false statements after he was interviewed by two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in January 2020 and said he did not know U.S. sanctions against Iran applied to Iranian companies or people. Karimi faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for both conspiring to commit bank fraud and committing bank fraud. He also faces a maximum five-year prison sentence for making false statements.

A Washington state resident and Bosnia citizen was sentenced to 85 months in prison for violating the Arms Export Control Act and other weapons possession charges, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a Jan. 28 press release. Hany Veletanlic sold firearms on eBay, the press release said, and was involved in 20 separate exports to two “customer groups” in Sweden. He also exported firearm parts to customers in France, Russia and Brazil.

A Colombian national and Florida resident was sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally exporting firearms to the National Liberation Army, a designated foreign terrorist organization in South America, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 28 press release. Francisco Joseph Arcila Ramirez worked with two others to illegally buy firearms in south Florida -- including four Draco 7.62mm caliber AK-style pistols and two Zastava M92 7.62mm AK-style pistols -- and ship them to Barranquilla, Colombia. The shipments also included about 100 AK-47 ammunition magazines and were hidden in “Husky air-compressors” bought by Arcila at a Home Depot. Arcila also planned future sales with a weapons broker for the terrorist group, which would have included more firearms magazines and components in the “coming months,” the Justice Department said. Arcila was paid about 60 million Colombian pesos for the goods, the press release said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transported a Kazakhstani national back to his home country after he was convicted of international arms trafficking, ICE said in a Jan. 23 press release. Eldar Rezvanov illegally exported defense articles, including firearms and parts, without the proper licenses, the agency said. Rezvanov and a conspirator used aliases to buy the items and lied on federal forms about the final destinations of the exports, ICE said. They smuggled the items onto overseas flights using “false shipping inventories” and “concealed the disassembled firearm components by taping them to metal kitchen utensils before shipping them overseas.” In 2017, Rezvanov attempted to export 395 firearms parts, 75 magazines, and 20 barrels and slides in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Later that year, Rezvanov again tried to export a range of defense-related goods -- including seven pistols, nearly 1,000 magazines and 453 firearms parts -- to Chechnya.

A Florida business owner was sentenced to 40 months in prison for conspiring to illegally export “power generating equipment” to Iran, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 26 press release. James Meharg worked with United Kingdom and Iranian citizens to export a “large turbine” and parts to Iran while trying to hide the shipment, the press release said. Meharg’s sentence includes three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

An Ecuadorian businessman pleaded guilty Jan. 23 to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after he was involved in a $4.4 million bribery scheme with Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, the Justice Department said in a press release. Armengol Alfonso Cevallos Diaz worked with others to bribe officials at Empresa Pública de Hidrocarburos del Ecuador (PetroEcuador) through U.S. companies and bank accounts, the agency said. Diaz helped launder the money through Miami-based shell companies, soliciting bribes from an oil services company for PetroEcuador officials, the press release said. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2, 2020.

The Commerce Department denied export privileges for Marjan Caby after Caby violated the Export Administration Regulations, Commerce said in a Jan. 17 order. The violations stem from a scheme involving a Miami-based company, its manager and its registered agent, whose export privileges were revoked in November for violating the EAR by illegally exporting aircraft parts and equipment to Syrian Arab Airlines (see 1911130043). Caby worked as the “internal auditor” for AW-Tronics/Arrowtronic, the company named in the order, and helped the shipments evade U.S. export controls by directing them to Bulgaria before they were eventually shipped to Syria, Commerce said. Caby’s export privileges were revoked for four years from the date of the order.

The Commerce Department issued a Jan. 15 order temporarily denying export privileges for five people and five companies for involvement in an international procurement scheme to illegally export U.S. items to Pakistan. The scheme, announced in an indictment recently released by the Justice Department (see 2001150040), involved Muhammad Kamran Wali of Pakistan, Muhammad Ahsan Wali and Haji Wali Muhammad Sheikh of Canada, Ashraf Khan Muhammad of Hong Kong and Ahmed Waheed of the United Kingdom. It also involved Business World of Pakistan, Buziness World of Canada, Business World of Hong Kong, Hong Kong-based Industria Hong Kong Ltd. and Pakistan-based Product Engineering. The scheme involved attempts to export items to Pakistan’s Advanced Engineering Research Organization (AERO) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), both of which are on the Entity List. The order denies their export privileges for 180 days from Jan. 15.

The State Department rescinded statutory debarments for three people and two entities that previously pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act, but did not reinstate their export privileges, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The agency rescinded debarments for Jami Siraj Choudhury, David Michael Janowski II, Netria Corporation, Jonathan Robert Reynolds and State Metal Industries after each requested reinstatement. The State Department said each party took “appropriate steps to address the causes of the violations sufficient to warrant rescission of their respective notice of statutory debarment.” But the agency also said the notice does not reinstate their export privileges, adding that it no longer requires export privileges to be reinstated before a debarment is rescinded. “This change in policy recognizes that the circumstances warranting statutory debarment may be different from those warranting the revocation of export privileges,” the State Department said. The policy change was announced in March (see 1903120050).

Five men were indicted for conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Powers Act and the Export Control Reform Act by trying to illegally export items to Pakistan, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 15 press release. The men -- Muhammad Kamran Wali of Pakistan, Muhammad Ahsan Wali and Haji Wali Muhammad Sheikh of Canada, Ashraf Khan Muhammad of Hong Kong, and Ahmed Waheed of the United Kingdom -- used a network of front companies to export the goods to Pakistan’s Advanced Engineering Research Organization (AERO) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).