Two Americans Sentenced to 45 Months in Prison for Conspiracy to Sell Iranian Oil

Two Texas men, found guilty by a jury in the United States last November of attempting to sell Iranian oil, which constitutes a violation of U.S. sanctions, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, were sentenced to 45 months in prison on Tuesday. According to Reuters, Genyu Wang, 43, a Chinese citizen, and Daniel Reilin, 42, from McKinney, Texas, conspired to buy oil from Iran between May and February 2020, conceal its origin, and then sell it to a refinery in China. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the main crime of these two was money laundering and circumventing U.S. economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Daniel Reilin is the head of a private Texas-based company, Stack Royalties, LLC, which sells oil and gas mineral rights to investment funds and private equity groups. The two, along with three others, were indicted in 2020 in a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania. Court documents show that these two accomplices have since confessed to their crime. Previously, Matt Olsen, head of the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, stated, 'The Department of Justice will not tolerate actions by those who violate U.S. sanctions and jeopardize our national security for their personal gain.' Despite sanctions reimposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 after the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2015, China remains the only major importer of Iranian oil in the world.