PRESIDENT OBAMA ADDS INTERNATIONAL DRUG “KINGPIN” TO
OFAC LIST
BOSTON –
Today President Barack Obama identified
Mihael Karner as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker, or “drug kingpin,”
for purposes of sanctions under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act
(the “Kingpin Act”).
This announcement, along
with the identification of five other foreign persons and organizations, is only
the 15th
Presidential determination under the Kingpin Act since June 2000. Karner’s
designation is based on evidence that, since 2000, Karner has run a global
distribution network for anabolic steroids that has sold millions of steroid
dosages worldwide, including to thousands of customers in the United
States.
The Kingpin Act is
administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset
Control (“OFAC”). It is designed to bring financial pressure against high-level
foreign drug traffickers, terrorists, and related organizations by blocking
their interactions with the U.S. financial system. Other recent Kingpin Act
designations have included Mexican cartel members and related corporate
entities, and persons and entities related to Syria and Iran. Today’s action
against Karner generally bars U.S. persons and companies from conducting
financial or commercial transactions with Karner, and freezes any assets Karner
may have that are within U.S. jurisdiction.
The six drug kingpin
designations announced today were recommended to the President through an
interagency consultation process among the Departments of Treasury, State,
Defense, Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Although not required by
the Kingpin statute, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence were also consulted.
Karner, a Slovenian national, and two co-conspirators,
Alenka Karner and Matevz Karner, were indicted in March 2010 on charges of
conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and
conspiracy to import controlled substances to the United States. Based on
allegations in the unsealed indictment and in extradition paperwork submitted to
the Federal Republic of Austria in June 2011, beginning in about 2000, Karner
set up a network of hundreds of web sites and numerous corporate shells to
facilitate selling anabolic steroids to customers in any country. Karner
sourced precursor chemicals for his products from Southeast Asia, among other
places, after which the steroids were assembled and packaged in a factory in
Eastern Europe. As internet orders were received, Karner shipped the steroids
in bulk to “remailers” in the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece and elsewhere, who
repackaged the drugs as individual orders and mailed them out. Through this
method Karner was able to disguise the true geographical origins of the
drugs.
It is alleged that since
2000, through the use of a constantly shifting network of web sites, Karner
shipped tens of thousands of anabolic steroid dosages to thousands of customers
in the United States, including to customers in Massachusetts. Nationwide,
these customers came from all walks of life, including amateur athletes, weight
lifters, people recovering from injuries, doctors and
others.
Karner allegedly
laundered the proceeds of his steroid trafficking using bank accounts in
Austria, Bulgaria and elsewhere, and through the use of internet-based payment
processors in France, Iceland, Germany and Luxembourg. Karner and his
co-conspirators hid the true ownership of his web sites and accounts by setting
up corporate shells in Gibraltar, Panama, Liechtenstein, Dominica, Hong Kong,
the Seychelles, and elsewhere. Much of the activity was run out of a post
office box based in Klagenfurt, Austria, near the Slovenian border. According
to the indictment, Karner has received over $50,000,000 in illicit proceeds from
his trafficking activities. Karner has also used drug trafficking profits to
buy, among other things, a ski lodge in the Austrian Alps, beachfront lots in
Croatia, substantial real property in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a yacht moored on
the Croatian coast.
Karner is presently a
fugitive. Based on a formal extradition request from the United States, in
December 2011 Karner was arrested at his ski lodge in Austria and detained by
Austrian authorities. In March 2012, U.S. Marshals were sent to Vienna,
Austria, to take custody of Karner and a co-conspirator with whom he had been
arrested, but at the last moment an Austrian court stayed extradition. After
being allowed to pay 1,250,000 Euros (about $1,630,000) in bail, Karner fled
across the border to Slovenia, where he now resides and continues to
operate.
Karner has been the
subject of prior European investigations, including efforts undertaken by the
Italian Carabinieri in 2003 and the Austrian State Police in
2005.
If convicted on the U.S.
charges, Karner faces up to 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiring to
launder money, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a fine of
$500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the offense. On the
charges of conspiracy to distribute and import controlled substances, Karner
faces up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a
fine of up to $500,000.
United States Attorney
Carmen M. Ortiz, Kevin Lane, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug
Enforcement Administration - Boston Field Office and John Gibbons, U.S. Marshal
for the District of Massachusetts made the announcement today. The case is
being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling of Ortiz’s
Economic Crimes Unit.
The details contained in
the indictment and extradition paperwork are allegations. The defendant is
presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of
law.
波士頓選務局公佈，達到繳交3000個有效支持簽名的波士頓市長候選人，現在有7人。
