The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned the heads of two Chinese fishing companies accused of labor rights abuses and fishing without permits or after providing deliberately misleading information to authorities.
These sanctions are part of the so-called Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act by which the U.S. declares itself empowered to unilaterally prosecute foreign nationals accused of acts of corruption or violations of fundamental rights.
In this case, the sanctions concern Li Zhenyu and Xinrong Zhuo, respective presidents of Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. Ltd. and Pingtan Marine Enterprise (the latter listed on Nasdaq), along with eight other affiliated entities and 150 fishing vessels with a «reputation for rampant abuse of crew members» and involved in «illegal, unreported and unregulated» fishing practices.
The U.S. government denounces cases such as the one that occurred on a Pingtan Fishing vessel, where it took seven months for crew members to contact their families only to learn that they had not been paid. When one crew member asked to leave the boat, his food was withheld for three days.
As a result of the sanctions, all property and interests in property of the described persons located in the United States, or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, will be automatically frozen.
In addition, this order has been extended to 78 vessels linked to Pingtan Fishing and 47 vessels of its subsidiary Honglong, as well as 32 other vessels of Dalian Ocean Fishing.
