Kazakhstan says the company sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) this week over its ties with arms deals between North Korea and Russia has been defunct for more than two years.
OFAC said on August 16 that it had imposed sanctions on Defense Engineering Limited Liability Partnership, registered in Kazakhstan, Limited Liability Company Verus registered in Russia, and Versor, a company registered in Slovakia for their involvement in circumventing international sanctions on Russia imposed over Moscow’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.
OFAC also said that in March it had designated Slovak national Ashot Mkrtychev for attempting to facilitate arms deals between Russia and North Korea. Mkrtychev is the president of Versor, the founder and owner of Verus, and the sole director of Defense Engineering.
The Kazakh National Economy Ministry said in a statement on August 17 that the operations of Defense Engineering had been suspended in Kazakhstan since February 14, 2021, adding that the addition of the company to the U.S. sanctions list is just "a technicality."
"According to data from the Industry and Infrastructure Ministry of Kazakhstan, the named company had not been provided with license to transport specific goods. We link the addition of the company to the sanctions list with its owner Ashot Mkrtychev's being under the U.S. sanctions," the statement said, stressing that Mkrtychev is not a resident of Kazakhstan.
OFAC said that through his negotiations with North Korea and Russian officials, Mkrtychev had organized potential plans to transfer more than two dozen types of weapons and munitions to Russia in exchange for a range of goods, including raw materials and commodities, to North Korea.
Mkrtychev has coordinated with North Korean procurement officials and used Versor to conduct negotiations with companies abroad, OFAC said.
The sanctions freeze all property and interests in property that the designated entities have in U.S. jurisdiction. OFAC’s regulations also generally prohibit all dealings by U.S.-based persons that involve any property or interests in property of designated entities.
