A quick series of legal moves built on one another this week, kicked off by a federal court in the District of Columbia unsealing two indictments against multiple defendants for violations of arms export controls and economic schemes to procure and export military technology to Iran.
The cases that emerged were the United States v. Paidar, et al. and United States v. Mahmoudi et al. Both involved purported schemes to procure and export U.S. technology for Iran between 2005 and 2013, and following the indictments, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control listed three of the defendants and four entities for sanctions due to involvement in the procurement of equipment to support Iran’s ballistic missile, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and weapons programs.
“With the help of our U.S. agency and international partners, the FBI thwarted an attempt to export advanced, American controlled, technological systems and goods,” Assistant Director Alan Kohler Jr. of the FBI Counterintelligence Division said. “The FBI will not stand idly while hostile countries attempt to evade our laws and circumvent U.S. sanctions, and we will work tirelessly to stop such activity. This sentencing further illustrates our willingness to reach beyond our borders, to protect American interests, and bring all offenders to justice.”
In Paidar, defendants Amanallah Paidar of Iran and Murat Bükey of Turkey were accused of conspiring to procure and export U.S. technology to Iran through their companies Farazan Industrial Engineering, in Iran, and Ozon Spor Ve Hobbi Ürünleri, in Turkey, between 2012 and 2013. They exported from the United States to Turkey a device to test the efficacy and power of fuel cells and later attempted to gain a bio-detection system with applications for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) research and use. Bükey ultimately pleaded guilty after his extradition to the United States from Spain last year and was sentenced to 28 months in prison. Paidar remains at large.
Mahmoudi stemmed from further back, between 2005 and 2009, when defendants Agshar Mahmoudi of Iran; Bahram Mahmoudi Mahmoud Alilou of Iran; and Shahin Golshani of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), supposedly conspired to obtain U.S. technology. They pursued a high-speed camera with known nuclear and ballistic missile testing applications, a nose landing gear assembly for an F-5 fighter jet, and a meteorological sensor system through their companies Aran Modern Devices Kish Company in Iran; and Modern Technologies in the UAE. All remain at large, however, and have been deemed fugitives.
All cases remain open and under investigation by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry, Office of Export Enforcement.
“The defendants’ efforts to unlawfully export advanced U.S. technology that could benefit the Iranian regime’s military and weapons of mass destruction research pose a threat to all Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Justice Department will steadfastly pursue and bring to justice anyone who violates U.S. export laws and harm our nation’s security.”
Fugitives or not, aside from Bükey, all those named in these cases have only been alleged to have committed these crimes, not proven. An indictment is merely an allegation until proven in a court of law.