US Charges Chinese National With Providing Missile Materials To Iran

The United States has charged a Chinese national with violating US sanctions by providing to Iran materials used to produce ballistic missiles, federal prosecutors in said Tuesday.

Xiangjiang Qiao works at Sinotech Dalian Carbon and Graphite Manufacturing Corporation, a China-based company which the US Treasury Department placed on a sanctions list in 2014 for helping Iran buy a material that can be used in the nose of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Sanctions bar companies from using the US financial system.

Qiao between 2019 and 2022 helped supply Iran with isostatic graphite, an ultra-fine grain used to make rocket nozzles, and set up a bank account in the name of a front company to receive $15,000 in transfers from a US bank in connection with the transactions, prosecutors said.

Qiao, 39, is in China and has not been arrested, prosecutors said. He faces charges including sanctions evasion, bank fraud and money laundering.

The US has sanctioned dozens of individuals and entities in recent years for involvement in schemes to supply sensitive technology or money laundering for Iran’s military and nuclear programs.

The Justice Department announced a series of criminal cases Tuesday tracing the illegal flow of sensitive technology, including Apple's software code for self-driving cars and materials used for missiles, to foreign adversaries like Russia, China and Iran.

With reporting by Reuters, AP