US charges 4 executives of Chinese company with evading North Korea sanctions and ‘trading with WMD proliferators’
- Owner and employees of Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co used more than 20 front companies to hide their financial dealings, prosecutors say
- Company is accused of abetting North Korean businesses under sanction for trading in weapons of mass destruction
Four Chinese nationals and the Chinese company they worked for have been indicted on charges of money laundering and violating weapons of mass destruction safeguards tied to sanctioned trade with North Korea, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Under an indictment handed down in Newark, New Jersey, the four each face up to 45 years in prison and US$1.75 million in fines.
The defendants are accused of using more than 20 front companies in Hong Kong and elsewhere to hide their “illicit financial dealings” on behalf of “sanctioned North Korean entities that were involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction”, John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
The indictment charges Ma Xiaohong, the owner of Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co Ltd; the company’s general manager, Zhou Jianshu; its deputy general manager, Hong Jinhua; and its financial manager, Luo Chuanxu, adding that they employed “deceit, craft, trickery and dishonest means”.
The four executives are not in US custody and are believed to be in China, a Justice Department spokesman told Agence France-Presse.