International Enforcement Actions

A Plot to Acquire Hard Currency for Iran’s Supreme Leader

On August 19, U.S. authorities unsealed a complaint charging Ali Chawla, Asim Mujtaba Naqvi, and Muzzamil Husnain Zaidi with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The three are accused of orchestrating a campaign to collect donations in the United States on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and Zaidi faces the additional charge of operating as an unregistered agent of Iran in the United States. The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Khamenei on June 24, 2019, and the purported scheme would also be a violation of other aspects of the U.S.

September 30, 2020

U.S. Targets Procurement Network Supplying Machine Tools to Iran

The United States recently exposed a scheme by two individuals to procure export-controlled U.S. and Canadian equipment with nuclear applications on behalf of an end user in Iran. The timing of the conspiracy highlights Iran's continued efforts to illicitly obtain Western technology despite the implementation of the JCPOA in January 2016.
October 31, 2019

An Iranian Plot to Acquire Carbon Fiber

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment last week charging Iranian nationals Ali Reza Shokri, Behzad Pourghannad, and Farzin Faridmanesh with orchestrating the shipment of carbon fiber from the United States to Iran. However, the three Iranians represent just half of a continent-spanning scheme first revealed seven years ago, when a grand jury indicted two other individuals: the Iranian-born American citizen Hamid Reza Hashemi and Turkish national Murat Taşkıran. American authorities waited for Pourghannad’s extradition from Germany last week to reveal the evidence implicating him and the two other Iranians in the plot.
November 15, 2019

How Freight Forwarders and Front Companies Help Iran Obtain American Technology

Two recent cases pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice demonstrate how Iranian companies employ an effective combination of American brokers, Middle Eastern front companies and freight forwarders, and bank accounts worldwide to obtain goods from the United States. In one plot, a U.S. company shipped military surplus to an Iranian customer by funneling the goods through a Turkish freight forwarder, then taking payments through accounts registered in Asian and European tax havens. In the other scheme, a U.S. wholesaler sent airplane components through a network of Iranian and Turkish front companies to Iran.
October 6, 2020

Extradition of Iranian Engineer, Suspected of Missile-Related Procurement, Moves Forward

An Iranian engineer alleged by the United States to be supporting Iran's military may soon be extradited from France to the United States. Charges against Rohollahnejad in U.S. federal court relate to his alleged involvement in an attempt to procure U.S.-origin items with potential military applications for Iran.
April 6, 2020

Australian National Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison Over Illicit Shipments of U.S.-origin Aircraft Parts to Iran

On March 21, 2019, 57-year-old Australian national David Russell Levick was sentenced to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to procuring and attempting to procure U.S.-origin aircraft parts for transshipment to Iran without a license. Levick's sentencing comes over seven years after he and his Thornleigh, Australia-based company, ICM Components Inc., were indicted for conspiring to defraud the United States and for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Arms Export Control Act.

April 15, 2019

Crackdown on Iranian Network Underscores Pattern in Illicit Procurement

A federal indictment unsealed last month provides the latest illustration of the methods used by Iranian procurement agents to illicitly procure U.S.-origin goods for export to Iran. This case details how Iranian citizen Arash Sepehri conspired with individuals and companies operating in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran to send hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of U.S. technology, most with military applications, to Iran between 2010 and 2011.
December 4, 2018

Illicit Procurement Network Used Firms in China, Portugal, and Turkey to Supply Iran

A recently unsealed indictment provides detail on Iran’s use of deceptive practices to procure export controlled items with military applications from the United States and elsewhere. The indictment details an elaborate, multi-year conspiracy directed by an Iranian-born Canadian to procure such items for an Iranian firm.
October 31, 2018

Iranian Citizen Indicted for Attempting to Export Nuclear Non-Proliferation Controlled Materials from the United States

On June 20, 2018, a federal indictment was unsealed against Saaed Valadbaigi, an Iranian businessman accused of sending U.S.-origin export controlled materials to Iran, including a high-strength aluminum alloy that can be used to make centrifuge components and materials with missile and aerospace applications.
July 11, 2018

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - International Enforcement Actions