Turkish National Charged With Evading US Sanctions on Venezuelan Oil Company

Turkish national Taskin Torlak was arrested Nov. 2 for allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by scheming to ship oil from Venezuela to benefit the country's state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos de Venezuela, DOJ announced.

Torlak was charged with one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He allegedly conspired with others to get U.S. financial institutions to process transactions linked with the transport of oil to benefit Petroleos de Venezuela, a company designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The sanctions evasion scheme, starting around November 2020, allegedly included hiding the identities of oil tankers by "re-naming and re-flagging vessels," hiding names with paint or blankets and turning off tracking systems for the vessels. Torlak allegedly received millions of dollars in exchange for hiding the oil shipments.