US prosecutors charged four Chinese individuals and a Chinese company with conspiring to evade US economic sanctions on North Korea by establishing a web of shell companies that funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars through the US financial system.
The scheme, which ran for at least six years beginning in 2009, enabled Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation (KKBC) in Pyongyang to evade US sanctions and buy commodities including coal, sugar and fertiliser for North Korea’s battered economy.
The Department of Justice on Monday unsealed a criminal complaint charging Ma Xiaohong and her company, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co (DHID), and three executives, Zhou Jianshu, the general manager; Hong Jinhua, the deputy general manager; and Luo Chuanxu, the company’s financial manager, with conspiracy to violate US sanctions law and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.