DOJ Files Asset Forfeiture Complaint in Money Laundering Case

The DOJ filed a $20 million civil forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska alleging violations of the International Emergency and Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA") and Iranian Transactions and Sanction Regulations ("ITSR").

According to the DOJ, U.S. businessman Kenneth Zong conspired with three Iranian individuals to evade the prohibitions of the IEEPA and the ITSR by engaging in false, fictitious and fraudulent transactions to move approximately $1 billion in Iranian-owned funds out of South Korean financial institutions and into and through shell company accounts in the United States, United Arab Emirates, South Korea and elsewhere. The $20 million dollars subject to this forfeiture action was used by Zong and others in an attempt to purchase a hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, Zong was convicted of foreign exchange and customs offenses in South Korea. In 2016, in connection with the same scheme to move Iranian funds out of South Korean financial institutions, Zong was indicted in the District of Alaska for conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, and for money laundering and money laundering conspiracy.