U.S. Charges Chinese National with Using Front Companies to Evade Iran Sanctions

On April 2, 2014, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and other law enforcement officials, announced that Fangwei (also known by his alias “Karl Lee,”), was being charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) by using U.S.-based financial institutions to engage in millions of U.S. dollar transactions in violation of economic sanctions that prohibited such financial transactions. In addition, the superseding indictment charges Fangwei with conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, a money laundering conspiracy, two separate violations of IEEPA, and two separate substantive counts of wire fraud, in connection with such illicit transactions. Fangwei, a national of the People’s Republic of China, is a fugitive.[1]