Historic extradition- of North Korean Businessman, Mun Chol Myong
Two years - two very long years and countless judicial filings - criminals should know that our DOJ will never give up until they have the Defendant in custody
After nearly two years of legal proceedings, Mun Chol Myong (Mun), 55, a national of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has been extradited to the United States. This case represents
“ The indictment alleges that Mun defrauded banks and laundered money in an effort to evade counter-proliferation sanctions imposed on North Korea by the United States and the United Nations…We will continue to use the long reach of our laws to protect the American people from sanctions evasion and other national security threats.” Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the Justice Department’s National Security Division
Redacted Indictment via ECF detailed a multi year scheme to “covertly” bypass economic sanctions - which sought to protect not just our Financial Institutions but also sought to protect our collective National Security- specifically preventing North Korea from “money laundering and proliferation financing”
The indictment alleges -
from April 2013 and November 2018, Mun and others conspired to covertly and fraudulently access the U.S. financial system. Mun is alleged to have defrauded U.S. banks and violated both U.S. and United Nations (U.N.) sanctions as part of his money laundering activities in transactions valued at over $1.5 million. The indictment further alleges that Mun was affiliated with the DPRK’s primary intelligence organization, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is the subject of U.S. and U.N. sanctions.
With respect to the United Nations Security Council Sanctions - in February 2017 the panel concluded the following entities were “front companies” and were operated and controlled by Reconnaissance General Bureau.
Glocom, a Malaysia-based company, sold radio communications equipment for equipment relatedto military materials.
Glocom was "a front company of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea company Pan Systems Pyongyang Branch (Pan SystemsPyongyang)," which was linked to "Singaporean company named Pan Systems (S) Pte Ltd (PanSystems Singapore)."
"Wonbang Trading Co." was an alias of; Pan Systems Pyongyang.
The Panel was investigating whether that company was actually "Wonbong Trading Co.," which was controlled by the Reconnaissance General Bureau and was a lead exporter of North Korean coal
August 5,2017, United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2371 - which forbade the sale or transfer, directly or indirectly, ofNorth Korean coal, iron, and iron ore.
Individuals and Entities
MUN Chol Myong
Sinsar Trading pte. Ltd - "Sinsar Front Company 1" was a hair and beauty products company - Singapore-based SINSMS Pte. Ltd.
OFAC designated China-based Dalian Sun Moon Star Intentional Logistics Trading Co., Ltd. ("Sun Moon Star") and its Singapore-based affiliate, SINSMS.
Foreign Trade Bank, OFAC designated China- and Hong Kong-based Mingzheng Intentional Trading Limited ("Mingzheng")
Incidentally I had previously created threads of research and specifically pointed to various Sanctions via OFAC - lest we forget the massive (and recent roll up) - circa May 2020 So it wasn’t a surprise to see the aforementioned entities in today’s newly unsealed indictment
And yes of course China all up in this unholy matrimony on evading sanctions- but then again that’s not at all a surprise
Count One - Conspiracy-Money Laundering
The indictment states that objective of the conspiracy was:
“…co-conspirators to enrich themselves by obtaining unlawfirl access to the U.S. financial system for North Korean entities, and to obtain commodities for export to North Korea that could only be purchased in U.S. dollars”
Furthermore the defendant and his co-conspirators sought to concealed their illegal access ofthe U.S. correspondent banking system… which also prevented these banks from conducting anti-money laundering due diligence pursuant to FINCEN, BSA/AML statutes.
This was archived by the defendant and his co-conspirators taking the following actions to hide their unlawful activity in contravention of the US and UN sanctions
using front companies for North Korean banks to process payments;
using third-party companies to make payments;
using bank accounts not in their own name;
removing references to North Korea from wire transactions;
and listing false end destinations on shipping documents that did not reference North Korea.
The indictment literally disclosed and aggregated down to the penny various transactions - Count One’s Overt Acts start at Paragraph 33 thru 99 and it’s a dizzying amount of data and actual “quotations” which means the Government likely has the actual communications between the Defendant and his co-conspirators.
Counts Two thru Six - Laundering of Monetary Instruments, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(a)(2)(A)
“…defendants named below did knowingly transport, transmit, or transfer, and attempt to transport, transmit, or transfer funds to a place in the United States from and through a place outside the United States, that is China, Singapore, and North Korea, and from a place in the United States to and tkough a place outside the United States, that is China, Singapore, and North Korea, in the amounts described below with the intent to promote the canying on of specified unlawful activity, to wit, an offense relating to a violation of section 1344”
Again this is a historic extradition and the Department of Justice really should be lauded for their efforts and after nearly two years - he was extradited. I went ahead and uploaded the newly unsealed indictment to my public drive -as you’ll note the recent DOJ-OPA doesn’t include a copy of the unsealed indictment
At any rate I need to get back to work but I wanted to make sure my readers had the newly unsealed indictment - Filey
Thank you. I hope your extracurricular activity doesn't in any way jeopardize your full time position...