2 Texas Men Sentenced for Conspiracy to Sell Iranian Oil to China

Two Texas men were sentenced on June 11 to 45 months in prison over a scheme to sell U.S.-sanctioned Iranian petroleum to China, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Wang Zhenyu, 43, a Chinese citizen and permanent U.S. resident, and Daniel Ray Lane, 42, a U.S. citizen from McKinney, Texas, schemed with three co-conspirators to evade U.S. economic sanctions against Iran from July 2019 to February 2020, the DOJ said in a statement on June 11. They attempted to buy sanctioned oil from Iran, masked the oil’s origins, and sold it to a refinery in China, according to the DOJ. “Wang, Lane, and their co-conspirators’ scheme to make millions also would have enriched Iran, one of our government’s foreign adversaries, in direct contravention of measures meant to protect American interests and national security,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in a statement, according to the June 11 press release....