The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has filed a criminal complaint charging a Singaporean national with federal crimes related to the violation of sanctions imposed on North Korea.

Kwek Kee Seng is accused of playing a leadership role in a scheme to use an oil tanker to make illicit deliveries of petroleum products through ship-to-ship transfers with North Korean vessels between February 2018 and March last year.

Satellite imagery shows the tanker, the M/T Courageous, engaged in a ship-to-ship transfer of more than one-point-five million dollars worth of oil to a North Korean ship, the Saebyol, in September 2019 and even traveled to the North Korean port of Nampo that November. The tanker illicitly stopped transmitting location information during this period.

However, the Singaporean still remains at large. The U.S. said it will work with foreign partners to bring the individual to justice.

In addition to the criminal charges, a civil forfeiture complaint has also been filed against the M/T Courageous that was purchased and operated by Kwek.

Cambodian authorities seized the oil tanker in March last year and have been holding the vessel pursuant to a U.S. seizure warrant, which was issued the following month.