Chinese citizen Zhenyu Wang and Daniel Ray Lane of McKinney, Texas have been sentenced to 45 months in prison for conspiring to sell Iranian petroleum in violation of US sanctions and for conspiracy to commit money laundering. The two men were convicted by a US jury in November and were found guilty of violating sanctions imposed by Washington and for conspiracy to commit money laundering [9d4917d3].
The scheme involved facilitating the purchase of sanctioned oil from Iran, masking its origins, and selling it to a refinery in China. Lane, the president of Stack Royalties, a Texas-based company, was approached by undercover government agents who offered him millions of dollars in profits to participate in the scheme. At least two other co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty [9d4917d3].
China remains the world's major importer of Iranian oil despite US sanctions imposed in 2018 [ae74b93f].
Zhenyu Wang and Daniel Ray Lane, two Texas men, have been sentenced to 45 months in prison for trying to sell Iranian petroleum in violation of US sanctions and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They schemed with co-conspirators to evade US economic sanctions against Iran from July 2019 to February 2020 by facilitating the purchase of sanctioned oil from Iran, masking its origins, and then selling it to a refinery in China. Lane, the president of Stack Royalties, a Texas-based company, was approached by undercover government agents who offered him millions of dollars in profits to participate in the scheme. China, despite sanctions, remains the world's only major importer of Iranian oil. The case was filed in 2020 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and at least two co-conspirators have pleaded guilty [eb2cb680].