By Jay Solomon 

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted a prominent Chinese businesswoman and Communist Party member on charges that she and her trading company helped blacklisted North Korean companies evade U.S. sanctions and to procure raw materials, potentially for use in Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

The indictment, unsealed on Monday, alleges Ma Xiaohong and her company, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co., served as financial fronts for North Korean companies sanctioned by the U.S. for their alleged role in developing Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities. The Department of Justice said Ms. Ma and her company and associates masked hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions on behalf of North Korean companies, which used the U.S. banking system.

The indictment specifically alleges that Ms. Ma and Hongxiang Industrial conducted U.S. dollar transactions on behalf of North Korea's Korea Kwangson Banking Corp., which the U.S. sanctioned in 2009 for its alleged role in financing Pyongyang's weapons programs.

The U.S. Treasury Department also announced sanctions on Ms. Ma, her trading company and two of her business associates at Hongxiang Industrial.

"The charges and forfeiture action announced today allege the defendants in China established and used shell companies around the world, surreptitiously moved money through the United States and violated the sanctions imposed on North Korea in response to, among other things, its nuclear-weapons program," Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said in a statement.

Efforts to reach Ms. Ma over the past week have been unsuccessful. Yao Jizhou, a Hongxiang Industrial official and assistant to Ms. Ma, has repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations against the businesswoman and her company.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Ms. Ma and the Hongxiang firm were under scrutiny by U.S. and Chinese officials for its activities in North Korea.

Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2016 12:32 ET (16:32 GMT)