OFAC targets Singaporean persons for assisting North Korea in evading U.S. sanctions

Financial Crimes Department of Treasury OFAC North Korea Sanctions

On October 25, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it made three additions to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) List pursuant to Executive Order 13551, which empowers the United States to block the property of certain persons with respect to North Korea. OFAC said the decision was designed to reinforce the U.S.’s ongoing “commitment to safeguard the international financial system and implement existing UN Security Council [ ] resolutions.” OFAC’s additions identify one Singaporean individual and two Singapore-based entities found to have helped North Korea evade U.S. sanctions—either directly or indirectly—by allegedly engaging in money laundering, counterfeiting goods or currency, smuggling bulk cash, trafficking narcotics, or engaging in other forms of illicit economic activity involving or supporting the North Korean government or any senior official. As a result, all assets belonging to the identified individual and entities subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

In a related action, the DOJ unsealed a federal indictment against the Singaporean individual who was charged with fulfilling millions of dollars in commodities contracts for North Korea and defrauding several financial institutions in hiding those illicit transactions using international front companies, including entities previously identified as SDNs for supporting the North Korean regime’s illicit activities. The indictment’s charges include conspiracies to (i) violate international sanctions; (ii) commit bank fraud; (iii) commit money laundering; and (iv) defraud the U.S. The charges also include counts of bank fraud and money laundering.

See here for previous InfoBytes coverage on North Korean sanctions.