HSI D.C. arrested Turkish national as he attempted to depart the United States to return to Turkey
WASHINGTON — A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. investigation led to the arrest of 37-year-old Turkish national Taskin Torlak, Nov. 2. Torlak has been charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions as part of a scheme to transport oil from Venezuela for the benefit of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., Venezuela’s state-owned oil and natural gas company.
“These sanctions violations put people at risk at every step — from allegedly tampering with location devices on vessels to supplying to money to areas that will continue to engage in activity that threatens the U.S.,” said HSI Washington, D.C. Special Agent in Charge Derek W. Gordon. “HSI will continue to work tirelessly to protect the American people and the integrity of our economic and trade laws.”
Torlak and his co-conspirators allegedly developed and implemented a complex scheme to violate and evade U.S. sanctions related to petroleum products from Venezuela and Iran beginning November 2020. The scheme apparently involved concealing the identities of the tankers by renaming and re-flagging vessels, as well as disguising ship names with paint or coverings. The conspirators also allegedly deactivated electronic tracking systems on the vessels.
Torlak and his co-conspirators allegedly received tens of millions of dollars from Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. in payment for transporting Venezuelan oil and hid the ultimate beneficiaries of the related transactions from U.S. financial institutions, who then unwittingly processed payments in furtherance of the scheme. Torlak supposedly conspired with others to cause U.S. financial institutions to process transactions connected to the transport of Venezuelan oil for the benefit of, which the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated as a Specially Designated National in January 2019.
The complaint further alleges that Torlak and his co-conspirators explicitly discussed the need to hide their conduct from the U.S. Government and its agencies, including the Office of Foreign Assets Control, as well as commercial maritime entities.
HSI Washington, D.C. conducted this investigation and extends appreciation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the trial attorneys of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida for their teamwork and prosecution of this case.
Members of the public with information about criminal activity in your community are encouraged to contact the HSI Tip Line at 877-4-HSI-TIP.
Learn more about HSI’s mission to increase public safety in your community on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSI_DC.