According to a report by Spain's International News Agency on February 20, Australian authorities confirmed the arrest of a Chinese citizen on suspicion of smuggling tobacco to North Korea. The US government believes that this behavior is related to illegal financing of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The man was identified by the media as Jin Guanghua. He was arrested by US authorities in Melbourne on March 21, 2023.
The 52-year-old businessman is currently in custody in Australia, awaiting extradition to the United States to face criminal courts, where he faces a range of charges including "bank fraud, money laundering, criminal conspiracy," the agency added in its brief message.
U.S. authorities said Jin Guanghua and two of his partners transferred more than $84 million to North Korea through a series of companies registered in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and China.
The money ended up flowing to a North Korean military company and a government agency, which took in about $70 billion over a decade, according to the FBI.
So far, US authorities have only arrested Jin Guanghua, who founded a company in Melbourne in 2021, but they are still looking for his two partners: Han Linlin and Qin Guoming, 42 and 50 years old respectively. age.
In April 2023, U.S. authorities fined British American Tobacco and a subsidiary $630 million each for bank fraud and violations of sanctions against Pyongyang, as well as illegal sales of cigarettes to North Korea from 2007 to 2017.
