Brian Assi (Brahim Assi), a Lebanon–based salesman for a multinational heavy-machinery maker with a U.S. subsidiary in Alachua, Florida, was sentenced to 44 months in prison for a scheme to export two U.S.-origin blasthole drill rigs to Iran via Turkey and Iraq. Assi conspired with Tehran-based Sakht Abzar Pars Co. to carry out the illegal export, in which he arranged for an Iraq-based distributor to purchase the machinery and used freight forwarders to ship it to Iraq and Turkey. His Iran-based co-conspirators then intended to re-export the machines from Turkey to Iran. As part of the scheme, Assi entered false information into the U.S. Automated Export System (AES) database and falsely informed his employer that the Iraq-based distributor was the ultimate consignee for the drill rigs. Assi and his co-conspirators also caused approximately USD $2.7 million from the illicit transaction in Turkey to pass through the U.S. financial system.