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The defendant, Mahmoud Reza Banki, 34, must also pay the government about $3.3 million, which prosecutors say was the amount of money involved in the illegal transactions.
“I stand before you today, older, wiser, but also more distraught than ever before,” Mr. Banki told a judge before his sentencing in a Manhattan courtroom that was packed with family members and other supporters. “I deeply regret everything that has
Barclays Bank PLC has agreed to pay $298 million over criminal allegations that it illegally engaged in financial transactions with banks in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma, the Justice Department disclosed in court papers Monday.
The countries are all under economic and trade sanctions by the U.S. government.
Barclays and the Justice Department's criminal division entered into a deferred prosecution agreement for two years that will delay, and in all likelihood ultimately rule out, any criminal proceedings if Barclays demonstrates to federal prosecutors that it complies with U.S. laws.
The bank was accused of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
It's just another Halliburton oil and gas operation. The company name is emblazoned everywhere: On trucks, equipment, large storage silos and workers' uniforms.
But this isn't Texas. It's Iran. U.S. companies aren't supposed to do business here.
Yet, in January, Halliburton won a contract to drill at a huge Iranian gas field called Pars, which an Iranian government spokesman said "served the interests" of Iran.
"I am baffled that any American company would want to have employees operating in Iran," says Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "I would think they'd be ashamed."
Yet, we know the poor oil companies are STILL there to this day...and it's not just oil and the money it creates that are being transferred.
[SIZE=3]Scandal-plagued Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick was secretly working with one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists on natural gas related projects and, allegedly, selling the scientists’ oil company key components for a nuclear reactor, according to Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge of both companies’ business dealings.[/SIZE]
Point taken. There's certainly nothing noble about businesses using loopholes. But to be fair, the Halliburton work is attributable to its subsidiary, which appears to be outside the reach of the law. That's not Halliburton's fault. That's our legislators fault. While I don't support the actions of Halliburton's subsidiary, it does seem that it acquired the work through legal contractual channels.
The same cannot be said for the individual who intentionally skirted American law to funnel money to Iran through underground channels.
The sanctions are ludicrous to begin with. They were ludicrous before. We have known about the relationship with Russia and China, who will more than likely profit off the sanctions. Too, we have known that Iran is willing to deal with other countries especially those that are up and coming. And has in the past, thumbed their noses at the US.
There is something completely and totally wrong in this society that allows corporations to get away with what they do and then this guy does time. There is something completely and totally wrong using the same tactics and expecting a different result.
I do not understand why people allow where a mosque is built to become the centerpiece of debates before a critical election. They willingly allow this and actively participate in something that is being spun. I just don't understand.
As an aside, I firmly believe that Haliburton is the anti-christ.
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