U.S. offers $15 million reward for woman, 3 accomplices accused of smuggling drone technology to Iran
Liu Baoxia, also known as Emily Liu, allegedly worked with three associates to use front companies in China to send U.S. electronic components to companies linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the State Department
said in a news release
. The associates were identified as Li Yongxin, also known as Emma Lee; Yung Yiu Wa, also known as Stephen Yung; and Zhong Yanlai, also known as Sydney Chung.
The electronic components could be used in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, ballistic missile systems, and other "military end uses," the State Department said. Thousands of components were sent, the State Department
said in another post
.
Liu and her associates allegedly misrepresented who the electronic components would be sent to, so they were exported to the Chinese front companies under the belief they were being sent to China. Instead, they were exported to Iran-linked companies Shiraz Electronics Industries, Rayan Roshd Afzar, and their affiliates, the State Department said.
Federal charges against the four, including conspiracy, were announced in January 2024. Known locations for Liu and her associates are Tehran, Iran; Shiraz, Iran; Bandar Abbas, Iran; Beijing, China, and Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Federal arrest warrants have been issued for
Liu
and
Chung
, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has added them to its "Most Wanted" list. The U.S. State Department said its Rewards For Justice program was offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to their arrest.
The IRGC regularly uses front companies to make and move money, and to procure technology while
evading sanctions and trade controls
, the State Department said. The IRGC and Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, which supervises the development and production of the nation's military weapons, have utilitized U.S. technology to manufacture arms and weapons systems, the State Department said. Those systems are then sold to governments and groups in Iranian-allied countries like Russia, Sudan and
Yemen
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
22 minutes ago
- USA Today
Zelenskyy's White House re-do
Hello!Rebecca Morin Erin is forecast to steer clearof the mainland United States. I'm thinking of all those who are affected in the Caribbean, such as those in Puerto Rico. Zelenskyy back at the White House Now, it's Ukraine's turn. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon is meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a potential peace deal with Russia, just days after Trump held an hourslong meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Before the Washington meetings, Trump railed at critics of his recent summit with Putin, where he shifted his position on a Ukraine ceasefire to align with that of the Russian president. He also put the onus on Zelenskyy to end Russia's assault on his country and ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine. Follow the latest updates from Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy. Don't forget about Europe: Trump is also set to meet with European leaders, who are rallying behind Zelenskyy and hope to move Trump away from Putin's conditions for a peace deal. European leaders also participated Sunday in an emergency virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, the group of countries that have offered to provide security guarantees to Ukraine after the war. See which European leaders will meet with Trump. Trump-Putin's meeting: The red carpets were rolled out. The two leaders shook hands. A roughly three-hour long meeting was had. And still, no peace deal. Trump and Putin held a roughly three hour long summit in Alaska, where the two did not come to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Key takeaways from the Trump-Putin summit. Documents left behind: Watch where you print. Government documents with details about meeting schedules and seating charts, as well as an extravagant menu and reminder to pronounce Putin's name "POO-tihn," were accidentally left in a hotel printer in Alaska amid Trump's meeting with the Russian leader. The documents with State Department markings, reported by NPR, were discovered in the printer in an Anchorage hotel around 9 a.m., hours before Trump's summit with Putin at a nearby military base. See what the documents said. A politics pit stop No more mail-in voting? Trump on Monday said he would sign an executive order to abolish mail-in voting, a move he said Putin supported. Mailing ballots is a popular option for voters to avoid waiting in line at polling places on Election Day. Election-security officials say voting has never been more secure and that the president has no role overseeing elections. But Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as vulnerable to fraud – despite election experts, including those in his first administration, who said mail-in voting is secure. What to know about Trump's plan. Texas standoff over Texas, we're heading home. Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives returned to Austin Monday morning after leaving the state two weeks ago in protest of a Republican plan to re-draw congressional maps to help the party gain seats in 2026. The protest temporarily blocked House Republicans from having a quorum to move the redistricting plan forward and drew national attention to Trump's effort to avoid losing the Republican majority in Congress next year. Republicans adjourned its first special session in the state House on Thursday. Democrats refused to return to the state until after that first special session. California's plans to redraw its state congressional maps also prompted Texas Democrats' return. Got a burning question, or comment, for On Politics?You can submit them here or send me an email atrdmorin@
CNN
23 minutes ago
- CNN
Analysis: Trump's empty threats on Russia sanctions
For years, Donald Trump criticized presidents for empty threats. He often pointed to then-President Barack Obama failing to enforce his 'red line' on Syria using chemical weapons. During his first term in 2017, Trump called it a 'blank threat' that cost us 'in many other parts of the world.' When Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, he intoned: 'Today's action sends a critical message: The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them.' When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Trump decried the Biden administration for letting Vladimir Putin off 'with no repercussions whatsoever.' But Monday, as Trump prepares to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a host of European leaders, his own threats to sanction Russia are looking pretty empty. The president last month issued a tight new deadline for Russia to agree to a peace deal or face supposedly crippling economic punishment. That deadline passed 10 days ago with no new sanctions on Moscow, although he did announce higher tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, set to go into effect later this month. And on the day of his sanctions deadline, Trump instead announced he'd be meeting with Putin, which he did on Friday in Alaska. But to the extent we know anything that came of that summit, it seems to be that Trump has not only backed off on his sanctions threat – at least for now – but he's also backed off on his push for a ceasefire in Ukraine. He instead wants a full peace deal now – which could take much longer to hash out and could buy Putin time, with little to no public evidence that the Russian president is serious about peace. There is something to be said for being nimble in foreign policy and adjusting to new inputs. But there's also something to be said for making threats that you intend to back up. And Trump's commentary here has been clear. For months now, he's said sanctions were right around the corner. 'If we don't make a 'deal,' and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,' Trump said on social media on January 22. Nearly seven months later, 'soon' apparently still hasn't arrived. When asked in May about a package of Russia sanctions that has widespread support in the Senate, Trump told Fox News it was 'turkey time.' 'That would be crushing for Russia, because they're having a hard time now with the economy,' Trump said. 'Turkey time' was three months ago. Russia still hasn't been crushed. By July, Trump got more explicit with his timeframe. He initially said Russia had 50 days to cut a deal or face sanctions and 'secondary tariffs.' Two weeks later, he tightened that to 10-12 days and then 10 days, with a deadline of August 8. 'So, what I'm doing is we're going to do secondary sanctions unless we make a deal,' Trump said. The planned meeting with Putin appeared to forestall that deadline, at least temporarily. But Trump assured it was a new deadline. Asked last Wednesday what would happen if Putin didn't agree to stop the war after the Alaska meeting, Trump said: 'There will be very severe consequences.' The Russian leader hasn't agreed to stop the war, and the very severe consequences haven't arrived yet. The situation is dynamic, particularly with Monday's meetings at the White House. But the administration appears to be inching back from its threats. Asked about the sanctions Friday night on Fox News, Trump responded: 'We don't have to think about that right now.' Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday actually pitched sanctions as an impediment to a potential peace deal. Appearing on multiple shows, he suggested the administration would wait until there was no hope of peace. 'The minute you issue new sanctions … our ability to get them to table will be severely diminished,' Rubio said of Russia on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' He added on CBS' 'Face the Nation,' 'You've basically locked in at least another year to year-and-a-half of war and death and destruction. We may unfortunately wind up there, but we don't want to wind up there.' While Trump has called economic punishment 'very devastating,' his administration has also recently rather curiously focused on the idea that sanctions on Russia might not even be that effective – noting Putin has dealt with them for years. In other words, it sounds a lot like they're laying a predicate for not following through on these threats any time soon. If that's the case, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise. Trump has a tendency to set deadlines for himself that ultimately fall by the wayside. 'Two weeks' has become an inside joke in DC political circles, owing to the many times the president has promised a decision or announcement and never followed through. Even when Trump announced the 10-day deadline for Russia, I wrote about how we probably shouldn't take it at face value. But as a former version of Trump would seem to agree, major foreign-policy threats are in a different class than promising a policy or personnel decision. Trump got extensive political mileage out of savaging Obama for his red line on Syria, because the stakes were so huge. He pitched the Democratic president as too timid to make good on the threat. The question now is whether Trump is doing the same with Putin. Maybe Trump has reason to believe there are serious prospects for a peace deal that warrant this pause. But Trump has certainly shown a reluctance to truly get tough with the Russian leader before. And some more hawkish Republicans are urging Trump to keep up the pressure. Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' that Trump can end the war, while re-upping the importance of the threat of sanctions. And perhaps tellingly, he said it required getting 'tough.' 'I'm cautiously optimistic we'll get there, if we're tough,' the South Carolina Republican said. Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, said it was time for the Senate to pass Graham's sanctions bill. 'I know his style in dealing with these dictators; it's the velvet glove,' Pence told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'State of the Union.' 'But I think the hammer needs to come, and it needs to come immediately.' The hammer appears to have been holstered for now. And you could understand if these Republicans worry that Trump's harder line on Putin has been, too.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trial of Hong Kong press mogul Jimmy Lai resumes closing arguments
Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A court in Hong Kong resumed closing arguments in the criminal trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai on charges of sedition and collusion with foreign powers. The trial had paused Friday because Lai, 77, was having heart issues. Lai was given medication and a Holter monitor, which tracks the heart's electrical activity. The trial had also been delayed Thursday because of torrential rain in the city. Judge Esther Toh said extra breaks could be allowed for Lai if needed. Lai, a citizen of the United Kingdom, founded Apple Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021. The tabloid has been described as anti-government, pro-democracy and anti-China. He is accused of collusion with foreign forces and sedition. He has been in solitary confinement since December 2020. He faces life in prison. Prosecutors have accused Lai of requesting foreign countries to engage in "hostile activities," such as imposing sanctions, against authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China. He allegedly conspired with senior editorial staff of Apple Daily and was the "mastermind and financial supporter" of the Fight for Freedom; Stand with Hong Kong advocacy group, which lobbied for international sanctions against Hong Kong and China. Lai denied in court that he had ever sought to influence the Hong Kong policies of other countries via his high-level contacts overseas, including former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Questioned about meetings with Pence and then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019, Lai said the meeting with Pence was more of a briefing where he updated him and answered questions about what was going on in Hong Kong Lai, who was noticeably thinner Monday than when the trial began in late 2023, was dressed in a white jacket in the glass dock and pressed his palms together in a prayer gesture several times to his family and supporters, the Independent reported. The prosecutor discussed the security law concerning the collusion charges, arguing that the request to impose sanctions must include officials and not just states. He planned to lay out other issues in the afternoon and make his closing statement on Tuesday. Lai is among hundreds of people who have been detained and charged under the controversial National Security Law, which critics say have silenced dissent in Hong Kong. Beijing justifies that the law is needed to maintain stability in the city. Solve the daily Crossword
