April 7, 2009 Treasury Designates Iranian Proliferation Network and Identifies New Aliases Washington, DC – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated one Chinese individual and six Iranian entities under Executive Order 13382 for their connection to Iran's missile proliferation network. Additionally, Treasury identified eight aliases used by E.O. 13382 designee LIMMT Economic and Trade Company, Ltd. ("LIMMT") to circumvent sanctions. E.O. 13382 is an authority aimed at freezing the assets of weapons of mass destruction proliferators and those who support them. "Today we are acting under our Security Council and other international obligations to prevent these entities from abusing the financial system to pursue centrifuge and missile technology for Iran," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. This action was prepared in close coordination with the New York County District Attorney's Office, which unsealed a criminal indictment against this procurement network earlier today. "We commend the District Attorney's Office for its intensive and significant investigation," added Under Secretary Levey. LIMMT, a Chinese firm, was designated by Treasury on June 13, 2006, for providing material support to Iran's missile program. The individual named today, Li Fangwei (also known as Karl Lee), is the commercial manager of LIMMT. For several years, Lee, acting on behalf of LIMMT, has sold needed goods such as graphite to entities involved with Iran's missile program. Treasury's 2006 designation disrupted LIMMT'S export and financing channels, and numerous attempts by LIMMT to receive payment were thwarted. To compensate and circumvent sanctions, Lee created front companies to access the global financial system. In doing so, LIMMT had to juggle multiple aliases and confronted operational difficulties and customer confusion. LIMMT told one customer: "please kindly arrange your accounting department to pay for the invoice to our following new company name and account number instead of previous company name and account no., this is very important !!! otherwise, the money can be blocked as of last time!!!" On another occasion, it instructed its customer, "you are kindly required NOT to inform our following previous identifying information to U.S. bank or U.S. Treasury Department.... [W]hat you should do is let them know that SINO METALLURGY & MINERALS INDUSTRY CO., LTD. is a company who is NOT related to LIMMT company and any other Company on the Specially Designated National (SDN) list of U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)." As a result of Treasury's action, any assets of the individuals and entities designated today that are within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen. Additionally, U.S. persons are prohibited from conducting any transactions with these individuals and entities.
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