A March 18 opinion unsealed late Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell marked the first known instance in which a U.S. court has upheld subpoenas to a Chinese bank in a sanctions probe. “Allowing China to gum up United States’ investigations by dictating how the United States can pursue evidence, especially when the two countries’ interests are not aligned, is antithetical to sound law enforcement,” Howell wrote. No Chinese bank has been the subject of prosecution for violating U.S. sanctions. The three Chinese banks are owned in large part by the government, rely on access to U.S. financial markets and cannot overlook that European banks recently have paid billions in fines to settle U.S. allegations of facilitating Iranian sanctions violations. Attorneys for the Chinese banks were not identified in the court opinion unsealed Tuesday.

Source: Washington Post May 01, 2019 23:03 UTC