(NewsNation) — Four Chinese nationals are facing charges after allegedly exporting electronic components from the United States to Iran for use in military weapons.
The Justice Department announced the indictment Wednesday, accusing Baoxia Liu, aka Emily Liu; Yiu Wa Yung, aka Stephen Yung; Yongxin Li, aka Emma Lee; and Yanlai Zhong, aka Sydney Chung, of smuggling the components through China and Hong Kong to benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.
“For more than a decade, the defendants allegedly orchestrated a scheme to smuggle U.S. manufactured parts to the IRGC and the Iranian agency charged with developing ballistic missiles and UAVs,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a news release. “Such efforts to unlawfully obtain U.S. technology directly threaten our national security, and we will use every tool at our disposal to sever the illicit supply chains that fuel the Iranian regime’s malign activity.”
According to the indictment, the scheme began as early as 2007 and ran through at least July 2020. The four allegedly used front companies in China to conceal the true destination of where they were sending the electronic components used in the production of UAVs, ballistic missiles and other military equipment.
“These deceptive practices caused the U.S. companies to export goods to the defendants’ (China)-based front companies under false pretenses and under the guise that the ultimate destination of these products was China as opposed to Iran,” the news release states.
Liu, Yung, Li and Zhong are charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, smuggling goods from the United States and submitting false or misleading export information, according to the news release.
They face up to 20 years in prison for violating IEEPA, up 10 years for smuggling goods and up to five years for each count of submitting false information.
Arrests warrants have been issued for all four, who remain at large.
