2 Americans jailed for trying to sell Iranian oil to China in violation of sanctions
Chinese national Zhenyu Wang, 43, and Daniel Ray Lane, 42, of McKinney, Texas, conspired with co-conspirators to evade US economic sanctions against Iran from July 2019 to February 2020 by facilitating the purchase of restricted oil from Iran, concealing its source and then selling it to a refinery in China, the department said in a statement.
Two Texas men convicted by a US jury in November of trying to sell Iranian petroleum in violation of sanctions imposed by Washington and conspiring to launder money were sentenced on Tuesday to 45 months in prison, the Justice Department said.
Chinese national Zhenyu Wang, 43, and Daniel Ray Lane, 42, of McKinney, Texas, conspired with co-conspirators to evade US economic sanctions against Iran from July 2019 to February 2020 by facilitating the purchase of restricted oil from Iran, concealing its source and then selling it to a refinery in China, the department said in a statement.
Lane was chairman of privately owned Stack Royalties, a Texas-based company that sells oil and gas mineral rights to investment funds and private equity groups.
Lane’s lawyer, Paul Hetznecker, told Reuters last year that the case was based on undercover government agents who offered Lane “millions of dollars in profits” if he participated in the scheme, though he initially turned down their offers. The lawyer called the case “an outrageous example of government overreach.”
The two, along with three others, were charged in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2020. Court records showed that at least two co-conspirators have since pleaded guilty.
China is the world’s only major importer of Iranian oil, despite former US President Donald Trump imposing unilateral sanctions on Tehran’s petroleum exports in 2018 after he withdrew the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
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