WASHINGTON—U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday they charged the president of a New York cosmetics company for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to violate U.S. economic sanctions on Iran.
Michael Rose, president of Forsythe Cosmetics Group LLC, is accused of skirting U.S. sanctions between 2015 and 2018 by arranging for the export from the United States to Iran of more than $350,000 worth of cosmetics, prosecutors said in an indictment.
They said an Iranian-based importer with whom Rose was working then used front companies based outside Iran to send payments to New York and to arrange for the shipment of goods to Iran via the United Arab Emirates.
Danya Perry, a lawyer for Rose, declined to comment on the indictment.
Rose was arrested on Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of Export Enforcement. Prosecutors said he was expected to appear before a magistrate judge in Manhattan federal court.
“Whatever his motivation—greed or something more sinister—we allege Mr. Rose intentionally disguised his products’ ultimate destination and lied about those products’ prices to limit his customs liability,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., an FBI assistant director.
By Mark Hosenball