Chinese National, Texas Man Sentenced in Scheme to Sell Sanctioned Iranian Oil to China

Chinese citizen Zhenyu "Bill" Wang and Texas resident Daniel Ray Lane were sentenced to 45 months in prison for trying to violate U.S. sanctions and commit money laundering as part of a scheme to "transact in sanctioned petroleum and launder the proceeds," DOJ announced.

From July 2019 to February 2020, Wang and Lane worked with co-conspirators to skirt U.S. sanctions on Iran by "facilitating the purchase of sanctioned oil from Iran," hiding its origins and selling the oil under "masked origins" to Chinese buyers, DOJ said. The duo conspired to hide the origin of the oil and obtain Antiguan passports to "facilitate the transaction and to establish offshore bank accounts to receive funds."

Wang provided the connection to the Chinese buyers, communicating with multiple parties in China and securing a written offer from a Chinese buyer, DOJ said. He also arranged bribe payments to Chinese officials to conduct the transaction. Lane helped launder the proceeds, using "the mineral rights that he sold through his business, Stack Royalties," to hide the Iranian profits.

The pair looked to start their scheme with a 500,000-barrel shipment of Iranian oil and then increase shipments to 1 million or 2 million barrels per month for at least a year, DOJ said.