U.S. judge upholds subpoenas to three large Chinese banks in N. Korea sanctions probe

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

U.S. judge upholds subpoenas to three large Chinese banks in N. Korea sanctions probe

By Spencer S. Hsu May 1 at 8:48 PM

A federal judge in Washington has ordered three Chinese banks partly or wholly owned by the Beijing government to turn over documents in a U.S. criminal investigation into how a Hong Kong corporation allegedly helped North Korea’s regime evade sanctions, new court filings show.

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. The banks had argued that if they complied, they would violate laws in their country and be exposed to fines and legal penalties from their own government.

“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.

In a sweeping and bluntly worded 59-page opinion, Howell found that the USA Patriot Act, adopted after the 9/11 attacks, authorized law enforcement to demand records tracing the source of foreign bank deposits funneled to accounts at U.S. banks set up to handle cross-border transactions, even if the records have no other tie to the United States or outside the country.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-upholds-subpoenas-to-three-chinese-banks-in-n-korea-sanctions-probe/2019/05/01/d2fb170c-6b99-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html

[soryang]

1. You have to wonder if there is really any reward for compliance

As more records are disclosed and more intelligence is gained, are not more financial institutions inside China going to be subjected to further investigations, inquiries, and US legal process?

THE TRUMP administration believed fervently in the unilateral power of the United States to impose its demands on the rest of the world, and was highly skeptical of arguments about limits and backlash. The Obama administration’s ginger embrace of Iran was reconfigured into a stranglehold, while sanctions against Chinese firms became a bargaining counter in a wider fight over trade and technology. Delirium tilted over into imperial folly, as high officials began to think that they could use America’s economic power to reorder the world better to their liking. As they have sought to turn the apparatus of infrastructure into a true tool of empire, reducing allies into near-vassals, control risks slipping from their grasp. Both friends and adversaries are reconsidering the advantages and disadvantages of attachment to an infrastructure that has become a means of force projection.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/america%E2%80%99s-misuse-its-financial-infrastructure-52707