Behrouz Mokhtari of McLean, Virginia, and Tehran pleaded guilty Jan. 9 to two conspiracies to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran "by engaging in business activities on behalf of Iranian entities" without getting a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ announced. Mokhtari will forfeit money, property and assets obtained from the schemes, including a Campbell, California, home, and a money judgment of over $2.8 million, DOJ said. The defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison for each of the two conspiracy counts.
The European Council announced that non-EU European nations aligned with five different sanctions decisions. Concerning the Nov. 14 move to amend the list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions on Iran, the countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision, the council said.
DOJ unsealed a 15-count indictment Nov. 29 charging Madison County, Alabama, resident Ray Hunt with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran, defrauding the U.S., smuggling goods from the U.S., and submitting false export information, the department announced. Hunt faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, up to five years for the count of conspiracy, 10 for the smuggling charge and another five for the false information charge.
Both the EU and the U.K. added entries to their Iran sanctions regimes over the Iranian government's role in the death of Mahsa Amini and the subsequent crackdown on protests relating to her killing.
U.S. sanctions have “abjectly failed” to stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and instead have allowed the regime’s weapons efforts to grow stronger, Reuters said in a Nov. 4 analysis. U.S. policymakers can now only “pick through the wreckage and seek to determine what went wrong,” the analysis said. "We've had a policy failure. It's a generational policy failure," Joseph DeThomas, a former U.S. official in the Clinton and Obama administrations who worked on North Korea and Iran sanctions, told Reuters. A senior U.S. administration official agreed that sanctions have failed to stop North Korea’s missile programs but told Reuters that “if the sanctions didn't exist, (North Korea) would be much, much further along, and much more of a threat to its neighbors to the region and to the world."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned 10 Iranian officials, two Iranian intelligence actors and two other Iranian entities related to the ongoing crackdown on protests in Iran and the Iranian government’s efforts to disrupt digital freedom, according to an Oct. 26 press release.
The EU is considering another set of sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities shortly after adding more names to its Iran restrictions list following the rising number of Iranian-made drones used in Russian attacks throughout Ukraine, Bloomberg reported Oct. 18. Ukraine has proffered several reports and intelligence assessments showing Iran likely delivered the drones to Russia during the summer to be used in the war in Ukraine. Iran has denied providing the drones, and EU member states want more proof before adding Iranian sanctions, Bloomberg said. The EU likely will make progress toward added sanctions this week, the report said.
The EU added 11 individuals and four entities to its Iran sanctions regime, the European Council said in an Oct. 17 news release. The newly listed parties include those involved in the death of Mahsa Amini, who was killed after her arrest for violating the country's strict veiling laws, and in the subsequent violent response to the protests in Iran. The council listed Mohammad Rostami and Hajahmad Mirzaei, key figures in Iran's Morality Police, along with Issa Zarepour, the Iranian minister of information and communications technology, for his role in shutting down the internet. They are subject to an asset freeze and travel ban. The EU also designated the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces and a number of its local chiefs for repressing the protests. The totals under the Iran sanctions regime now stand at 97 individuals and eight entities.
The EU Parliament Oct. 6 called for the EU to impose sanctions on Iranian officials following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and the subsequent violence committed against protesters after her death. Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman, was killed while in custody of Iran's "morality police" after violating the country's strict veiling laws. She died in a Tehran hospital three days after suffering injuries from physical abuse while in custody. "The EU must sanction Iranian officials involved in the regime’s repression," the parliament said. The U.S. and Canada have already designated individuals and entities linked to Amini's death and the later human rights violations committed following her passing (see 2209220029).
Oil exports from Iran have dipped in recent months given greater competition from Russia in the Asian market, Bloomberg reported. Dropping from a peak of 1 million barrels of crude oil exports a day to an average of 750,000 barrels, Iran's exports are dealing with direct competition from Russia in countries such as China. The competition has forced Tehran to constantly review and adjust its prices, Bloomberg said.