The U.S. Justice Department has indicted a former North Korean diplomat in Thailand on charges of sanctions evasion, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and international money laundering. 

The department said on Tuesday that Ri Myong-ho, a former official at the North Korean embassy in Thailand, arranged for shipments of goods to North Korea using U.S. dollar wire transfers without receiving a license from the U.S. Treasury Department.

According to the indictment, beginning around February 2015, Ri used his position as Third Economic and Commercial Secretary at the embassy to negotiate contracts on behalf of a North Korean company to ship goods into North Korea from Thailand. To do so, Ri utilized multiple front companies and co-conspirators in Thailand and Malaysia.

Matthew Olson, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s national security division, said that Ri deliberately circumvented U.S. sanctions by using front companies to deceive American banks as he smuggled goods into North Korea.

Olson added that the department will be relentless in pursuing those who violate sanctions and advance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.