Sanctions: USA's BIS suspends Malaysian company's export privileges
The USA's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has suspended for 30 days the export privileges of Malaysian company Anvik Technologies Sdn. Bhd. and its owner Babak Jafarpour a.k.a Bob Jefferson alleging that they used a network of virtual offices to disguise the purchase products in the USA and export them to Iran in contravention of sanctions.
The addresses for both the company and the person are listed by BIS as
Level 20, Menara Standard Chartered, 30 Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur 50250 MalaysiaLevel 36, Menara Citibank, 165 Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur 50450 MalaysiaLevel 19, Two IFC, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong155 North Wacker Drive (42/f), Chicago, Illinois, 60606, USA
Note: although Menara Standard Chartered and Menara Citibank bear the names of major international banks, they are "named tenants" and not the owners or the managers of the building; they do not operate the business centres listed.
The "Temporary Banning Order" against the company and the individual were issued 16 November 2010 and last for 30 days unless renewed. They are issued because BIS is of the opinion that a breach has occurred or is imminent.
BIS alleges that the individual controls the company and that there have been a number of occasions since October 2009 and continuing when they have sought to export products from the USA to one of the virtual offices with the intention of forwarding them to Iran.
The BIS order with full details of the allegations is at http://www.bis.doc.gov/news/2010/TDO20101115.PDF
All US citizens and residents are not permitted to take a wide range of actions relating to the commercial activities of those who are subject to the order. That includes being involved in any financial arrangement.
By a contorted route through a network of law and regulation, that means that no foreign bank may deal with them in relation to the matters in the Order either directly or through the correspondent banking network.
Because banks are prevented from dealing with them (in USD) then that effectively blocks all persons worldwide from dealing with the named persons in USD wherever the dealings are carried out, if those dealings are covered by the Order.
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