US media are highlighting new legal cases against companies that have been targeted for allegedly violating Iran trade bans in a sign that shows the regime of sanctions against Iran continues to bite despite the recent nuclear breakthrough in Vienna over the Iranian nuclear energy program.� ��

The Wall Street Journal has highlighted a case in which a company based in Oklahoma has agreed to pay a penalty of $214,000 to settle accusations that it violated US sanctions over a business transaction involving Iran.

The Journal reports that the company � named Great Plain Stainless Co. � faced allegations that it had allowed a Chinese vendor to ship its products on a blacklisted Iranian vessel.

The company had reportedly tried to cover up the 2009 shipments by requesting altered shipping records with the name� of the vessel ��Sahand�� removed, the US Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, a report by Fox43 says�an officer of Falcon Instrumentation and Machinery FZE � a company with alleged links to Iran � has entered a plea of guilty in a federal court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,�on behalf of the corporation over charges of trying to evade export licensing requirement.

The case involves an alleged attempt to smuggle to Iran a machine with possible military as well as civilian applications.

As part of its plea agreement with the US government, Falcon has agreed that the government would recommend a $250,000 criminal fine. The company also has agreed under a settlement to pay a civil penalty at $837,500 to the US Department of Commerce.

US media say both cases show that despite the recent nuclear breakthrough reached between Iran and the P5+1 in Vienna over the Iranian nuclear program, it will be a long time before echoes of the decades of sanctions against Iran eventually fade.

Iran and the P5+1 announced at the end of marathon top-level talks on July 14 that they had agreed on certain restrictions over the Iranian nuclear energy activities in return for the removal of certain economic sanctions against the country.

By Press TV