The U.S. government has put a $5 million bounty on the head of a Chinese dealer accused of supplying Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Li Fangwei, a 41-year-old Chinese national who also goes by Karl Lee and runs LIMMT Economic and Trade Company, Ltd., was first subjected to U.S. sanctions in 2009 for selling “needed goods such as graphite to entities involved with Iran’s missile program.”
According to a U.S. indictment, said the State Department, “he controls a large network of front companies and allegedly uses this network to move millions of dollars through U.S.-based financial institutions to conduct business in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations, which prohibit such financial transactions. Li Fangwei is also charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, a money laundering conspiracy, and two separate counts of wire fraud in connection with such illicit transactions.”
The reward is being offered through the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, established last year “as a tool to assist U.S. Government efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and bring their leaders and members to justice.”
The Justice Department, the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department have all gone after him with either charges or addition to blocking lists.
According to the indictment:
“[He] used aliases and shell companies to evade U.S. Treasury Department sanctions against LIMMT and continue transactions involving the U.S. financial system; according to the indictment, sold “weapons materials” to subsidiary organizations of Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO), including Amin Industrial Group, Khorasan Metallurgy Industries, Shahid Sayyade Shirazi Industries, and Yazd Metallurgy Industries; according to the indictment, sent an invoice in June 2008 to an agent of Amin Industrial Complex for 24,500 kilograms of maraging steel rods; according to the indictment, acknowledged receipt of payment in 2007 for eight pieces of steel plates sold to Khorasan Metallurgy Industries; according to the indictment, in April 2007 sent an invoice to an agent of Shahid Sayyade Shirazi Industries confirming the sale of 450 metric tons of furnace electrodes with 4TPI nipples; according to the indictment, in 2007 communicated with agents of Aban Commercial and Industrial Co. over the sale and shipment of 2,000 kilograms of tungsten metal powder, 400 pieces of tungsten-copper alloy plates, and 200 pieces of graphite cylinders for an electrical discharge machine (EDM-15).”
While the U.S. goes after a supplier to Iran with millions of bucks in reward money, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman traveled to Brussels yesterday “for coordination meetings with the Political Directors of the P5+1 in preparation for the next round of talks with Iran on a comprehensive solution to the nuclear issue,” said the State Department.
That round will take place in Vienna beginning on May 13.
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