Our Publications
This page contains summaries of the world's effort to enforce international sanctions against Iran by preventing it from buying weapons and the means to make them. The summaries cover prosecutions, interdictions of illicit cargo, and other enforcement actions.
International Enforcement Actions
September 24, 2013
On August 14, 2013, Seyed Amin Ghorashi Sarvestani, an Iranian national, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to export satellite technology and hardware to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Ghorashi, 46, was the manager and part-owner of two companies based in the...
International Enforcement Actions
September 3, 2013
Between May 25, 2008 and December 21, 2009, Ramin Pouladian-Kari, director of GTC Associates, a British company, worked with Iran Tablo Company in Tehran to export 361 dual-use electrical switchgears to Iran via a company in Dubai. He was denied a license for the exports by British licensing authorities. One shipment of switchgears was exported...
International Enforcement Actions
August 8, 2013
Shahab Ghasri, a naturalized Swedish citizen of Iranian origin, was found guilty of violating international sanctions against Iran. The verdict was delivered by a Swedish district court in February 2013; Ghasri was given a three month suspended jail sentence. Between February and April 2011, Ghasri attempted to sell vacuum pumps and corrosion-...
International Enforcement Actions
June 5, 2013
On May 13, 2013, A Nigerian court sentenced Azim Aghajani, allegedly a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and his Nigerian accomplice Ali Usman Abbas Jega, to five years in prison for their role in an arms smuggling case. Aghajani and Jega were charged with falsifying shipping documents and hiding mortars and rockets among 13...
International Enforcement Actions
May 11, 2013
Iranian national Saeid Mohabat was extradited from Cyprus to the United States on charges of attempting to purchase F-4 and F-5 plane parts from the United States for shipment to Iran. Mohabat was in phone and e-mail contact with an undercover American agent posing as a supplier of pitot static tubes, which are used to measure air speed. The deal...
International Enforcement Actions
May 6, 2013
Two Iranian nationals were sentenced to life in prison in a Kenyan court on charges of preparing a terrorist attack against Western targets. The men, Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi, were arrested on June 19, 2012 and subsequently charged with possession of explosives, preparing to commit a felony, and intent to commit grievous...
International Enforcement Actions
March 15, 2013
Yemeni authorities seized a 130-foot dhow carrying surface-to-air missiles, explosives, and bomb-making equipment that originated from an Iranian military port and may have been intended for an insurgent group in Yemen. The seized cargo included 10 Chinese man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADs) labeled QW-1M possibly assembled by the China...
International Enforcement Actions
February 7, 2013
A U.S. district court in New York charged Hamid Reza Hashemi, Murat Taskiran, and Amir Abbas Tamimi on December 5, 2012 with illegally exporting and attempting to export goods such as carbon fiber and helicopter parts from the United States to Iran.
International Enforcement Actions
January 30, 2013
Spanish police have broken up a smuggling ring that was planning to ship nuclear components to Iran. The police operation, dubbed "Operation Alfa," began in March 2012. It resulted in two arrests and the interception of a truck owned by the Spanish company Fluval Spain S.L. and carrying dozens of highly corrosion-resistant Inconel 625 valves. The...
International Enforcement Actions
January 10, 2013
On January 8, 2013, retired British businessman Christopher Tappin was sentenced to 33 months in prison in an El Paso, Texas federal court for attempting to illegally export batteries used in the Hawk air defense missile to Iran via Britain or the Netherlands. In 2006, Tappin offered to sell the missile batteries for $25,000 to undercover U.S....