The Supreme Court has upheld the one-year sentence handed down to a Taiwan businessman for breaching the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act by illegally selling nearly 3,000 metric tons of oil to North Korea in international waters.
The sentence was originally handed down by the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch in October 2022.
In its ruling issued on Feb. 2, the Supreme Court said Huang Wang-ken (???) was guilty of selling 2,829 metric tonnes of oil to sanctions-hit North Korea by arranging two illicit ship-to-ship fuel transfers in international waters in 2018.
Huang was the owner of Jui Pang Shipping Co., Jui Zong Ship Management Co., and Jui Cheng Shipping Co., and also owned the Panamanian-flagged Shang Yuan Bao tanker, the verdict said.
In May 2018, Huang, in collusion with an oil importer surnamed Wen (?), first shipped 1,350 metric tons of oil from Taichung to the port of Hong Kong, from where the oil was transported to international waters and transferred from the Shang Yuan Bao to a North Korean vessel, it said, adding that the two men used the same method to transport a further 1,479 metric tons of oil to North Korean ships two weeks later.
The illicit practice enabled North Korea to import refined petroleum despite international sanctions.
As North Korean oil tankers are under long-term U.S. satellite surveillance, the illegally activities of the Shang Yuan Bao were clearly recorded, the ruling said.
In October 2018, the Shang Yuan Bao was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council over the transfers, with the U.S. Department of the Treasury subjecting Huang and his three marine transportation entities to secondary sanctions in August 2019.
The High Court’s one-year jail term was only slightly reduced from the 14-month sentence handed down by a lower court in April 2022, because Huang had not confessed to his illegal actions until the most recent trial.
The Kaohsiung court criticized Huang for “disregarding the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, seriously eroding Taiwan’s image and putting the country at risk of being sanctioned by the U.N. or the international community.”
Meanwhile, a four-month sentence, which is commutable to a fine, on a charge of document forgery, was also upheld by the Supreme Court.
According to the court, Huang was guilty of using a fake reason to apply for an entry permit for Shang Yuan Bao’s engineering chief with the National Immigration Agency branch at the Port of Kaohsiung.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel