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DECEMBER 2012 NSD 

WWW.JUSTICE.GOV (202) 514-2007

 

SUMMARY OF MAJOR U.S. EXPORT ENFORCEMENT, ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE, 

TRADE SECRET AND EMBARGO-RELATED CRIMINAL CASES

(January 2007 to the present: updated Dec. 6, 2012)

Below is a snapshot of some of the major export enforcement, economic espionage, theft of trade secrets, 

and embargo-related criminal prosecutions handled by the Justice Department since January 2007. These 

cases resulted from investigations by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Commerce’s 

Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Pentagon’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), 

and other law enforcement agencies. This list of cases is not exhaustive and only represents select cases.

• Coatings for Rocket Nozzles and Other Goods to Taiwan and China – On Dec. 6, 2012, Mark 

Henry, a U.S. citizen and resident of Queens, NY, who operated a company called Dahua 

Electronics Corporation, was arrested on an indictment in the Southern District of New York 

charging him with conspiracy to violate and violating the Arms Export Control Act and violating 

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. According to the indictment, from April 

2009 through September 2012, Henry purchased ablative materials that are used for protective 

coating for rocket nozzles from a Colorado company and caused 294 kilograms of these materials 

to be exported to a company in Taiwan. These particular materials are controlled under the U.S. 

Munitions List and may not be exported without a State Department license. Henry also 

purchased from a company in Pennsylvania microwave amplifiers that are controlled by the 

Commerce Department and have potential military uses and falsely stated that the goods were for 

an educational institution in New York. Henry allegedly attempted to ship the microwave 

amplifiers to a China without a Commerce license. This investigation was conducted by the 

Department of Commerce and the FBI.

• Carbon Fiber and Other Materials to Iran and China – On Dec. 5, 2012, prosecutors in the 

Southern District of New York unsealed charges against four individuals for exporting various 

goods to Iran and to China, including carbon fiber (which has nuclear applications in uranium 

enrichment as well applications in missiles) and helicopter components. Hamid Reza Hashemi, 

an Iranian national, and Murat Taskiran, a Turkish citizen, were charged in one indictment with 

conspiracy to violate and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) 

by working to arrange the illegal export of carbon fiber from the U.S. to Hashemi’s company in 

Iran via Europe and the United Arab Emirates. Hashemi was arrested upon arrival in New York 

City on Dec. 1, 2012. Taskiran remains a fugitive. Peter Gromacki, a U.S. citizen and resident of 

orange County, NY, is charged in another indictment with violating IEEPA by using his NY 

company to illegally export carbon fiber from the United States to China. According to the 

indictment, in June 2007, Gromacki arranged for the illegal export of more than 6,000 pounds of 

carbon fiber from the U.S. to Belgium, which was then shipped to China. He allegedly made a 

variety of false statements on shipper’s export declaration forms. Gromacki was arrested at his 

home on Dec. 5, 2012. Amir Abbas Tamimi, an Iranian citizen, was charged in a separate 
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indictment with violating IEEPA by working to export helicopter component parts from the U.S. 

to Iran, via South Korea. The components were for a particular type of helicopter that can be 

used for military purposes. Tamimi was arrested upon arrival in New York City on Oct. 5, 2012. 

None of the defendants obtained the requisite approval from the Department of Treasury for such 

exports. This investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE, and Department of Commerce.

• Prohibited Exports to Iran – On Dec. 4, 2012, Markos Baghdasarian pleaded guilty in the 

District of South Carolina to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers 

Act and to defraud the United States, violating the Iranian embargo and making false statements. 

On May 19, 2012, Baghdasarian was arrested in Atlanta prior to boarding a flight to the United 

Arab Emirates (UAE). Baghdasarian was charged by criminal complaint in the District of South 

Carolina with exporting goods from the United States to Iran without the required licenses and 

with making false statements. He was later indicted on June 14, 2012. According to the charges, 

Baghdasarian served as the manager of Delfin Group USA, a Russian-owned producer of 

synthetic motor oils, located in North Charleston, South Carolina. From as early as June 13, 

2010, until October 12, 2011, Baghdasarian is alleged to have engaged in prohibited transactions 

with customers in Iran, including Pars Oil, which is an oil company owned by the Government of 

Iran. He alleged exported to Iran aviation engine oils and polymers valued at $850,000 and

allegedly concealed that Iranian customers were the true recipients of the shipment by falsely 

asserting that a business entity in the UAE was the ultimate consignee for the goods. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and Department of Commerce.

• Aircraft and Aircraft Components to Iran – On Dec. 3, 2012, Hamid Asefi and Behzad 

Karimian pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky to charges 

related to the unlawful export of aircraft and aircraft parts from the United States to Iran. Asefi, 

68, is a citizen and resident of the Republic of Iran, and is the principal officer of Aster Corp Ltd., 

an Iranian company with offices in both Iran and the United Kingdom. Karimian, also known as 

“Tony” Karimian, 53, is a U.S. citizen living in Louisville, who holds a valid Iranian passport and 

is employed as a Mesaba Airlines pilot. Asefi and Karimian were both charged with conspiracy 

to violate and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for exporting, selling 

or causing the export or sale of aircraft and aircraft parts without first having obtained the 

required license from the U.S. Department of Treasury. Asefi made his initial appearance in U.S. 

District Court in Louisville on June 1, 2012. Karimian was arrested and made his initial 

appearance in U.S. District Court in Louisville on June 6, 2012. According to documents filed in 

the case, Asefi and Karimian conspired to export and/or sell a General Electric CF6-50 aircraft 

engine and Bell helicopters to entities in Iran. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Specialty Coatings to Pakistani Nuclear Facility – On Dec. 3, 2012, in the District of Columbia, 

the China Nuclear Industry Huaxing Construction Co., Ltd. (Huaxing), a corporate entity owned, 

by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and three unlawful exports of high performance 

coatings to a nuclear reactor in Pakistan. It is believed that the plea marks the first time that a 

PRC corporate entity has entered a plea of guilty in a U.S. criminal export matter. Huaxing was 

also sentenced to the maximum criminal fine of $2 million, $1 million of which was stayed 

pending its successful completion of five years of corporate probation. The terms of Huaxing’s

probation require it to implement an export compliance and training program that recognizes 

Huaxing’s obligation to comply with U.S. export laws. In both the criminal and administrative 

case, Huaxing is accused of conspiring to export, re-export, and transship high-performance 

epoxy coatings to the Chashma II Nuclear Power Plant in Pakistan, a nuclear reactor owned by 

the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), an entity on the Department of Commerce’s 

Entity List. The Huaxing guilty plea is related to the Dec. 21, 2010, guilty plea of PPG Paints 
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Trading Co., Ltd. to a four-count information in the District of Columbia. Together, PPG Paints 

Trading and its parent company, PPG Industries, Inc., paid $3,750,000 in criminal and 

administrative fines and over $32,000 in restitution. It is also related to the Nov. 15, 2011, guilty 

plea by Xun Wang to conspiracy to violate IEEPA. Wang, a former Managing Director of PPG 

Paints Trading, was the senior most PPG Paints Trading employee responsible for the unlawful 

export scheme. According to Huaxing’s plea documents, in January 2006, PPG Industries 

sought an export license for the shipments of coatings to Chashma II. In June 2006, the 

Department of Commerce denied that license application. Following that denial, Huaxing and its 

co-conspirators agreed upon a scheme to export, re-export and transship the high-performance 

epoxy coatings from the U.S. to Chashma II, via a third-party distributor in China, without first 

having obtained the required export license from the Department of Commerce. From June 2006 

through around March 2007, members of the conspiracy falsely stated that the coatings were to be 

used at a nuclear power plant in China, the export of goods to which would not require a 

Commerce license. Through these means, Huaxing and its co-conspirators unlawfully exported 

three shipments of coatings from the U.S. to Chashma II worth approximately $32,000. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Inertial Navigation Units to the UAE & Turkey – On Nov. 28, 2012, Junaid Peerani, a resident 

of Broward County, Fla., and the owner of AEROTEK 2000, INC., was arrested on a criminal 

complaint in the Southern District of Florida charging him with violations of the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act and smuggling. According to the complaint, in March 2011, 

Peerani attempted to export to the United Arab Emirates an inertial navigation unit that is 

controlled for export by the Commerce Department for missile technology and anti-terrorism 

reasons. The item, which is a laser gyro replacement for the mechanical inertial navigation 

system used on many military transport and commercial aircraft, was seized by U.S. border 

authorities before departing the United States. Peerani also allegedly attempted to export two 

additional inertial navigation units to Turkey in Sept. 2012 without obtaining the requisite 

Commerce Department export license. This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Military Antennas to Iran – On Nov. 20, 2012, an indictment in the District of Columbia 

charging Amin Ravan and his Iranian company, IC Market Iran (IMI), with conspiracy to defraud 

the United States, smuggling and violating the Arms Export Control Act, was unsealed. Ravan 

was arrested by authorities in Malaysia on Oct. 10, 2012 and the United States is seeking his 

extradition. According to the indictment, which was returned under seal on Nov. 16, 2011, Ravan 

was based in Iran and, at various times, acted as an agent of IMI in Iran and an agent of Corezing 

International, Pte, Ltd, a company based Singapore that also maintained offices in Hong Kong 

and China. In late 2006 and early 2007, Ravan allegedly attempted to procure for shipment to 

Iran export-controlled antennas made by a company in Massachusetts, through an intermediary in 

Iran. The antennas sought by Ravan were cavity-backed spiral antennas as well as biconical 

antennas. After this first attempt was unsuccessful, Ravan joined with two co-conspirators at 

Corezing in Singapore so that Corezing would contact the Massachusetts company and obtain the 

antennas on behalf of Ravan for shipment to Iran. When Corezing was unable to purchase the 

antennas from the Massachusetts firm, Corezing then contacted another individual in the United 

States who was ultimately able to obtain these items from the Massachusetts firm by slightly 

altering the frequency range of the antennas to avoid detection by the company’s export 

compliance officer. Ultimately, between July and September 2007, a total of 50 cavity-backed 

spiral antennas and five biconical antennas were exported from the United States to Corezing in 

Singapore and Hong Kong. No party to these transactions -- including Ravan or IMI -- ever 

applied for or received a license from the State to export any of these antennas from the United 

States to Singapore or Hong Kong. This investigation was conducted by ICE, FBI and BIS.
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• Military Aircraft Parts to Iran – On Nov. 15, 2012, Alireza Moazami Goudarzi, an Iranian 

national, was charged in an indictment in the Southern District of New York in connection with a 

plot to illegally export military and civilian aircraft components from the United States to Iran. 

Goudarzi was arrested in Malaysia on Oct. 24, 2012 and the United States is seeking his 

extradition. According to the indictment, in 2010, Goudarzi contacted a U.S. supplier seeking to 

buy certain civilian aircraft parts for shipment to Iran, and, as an incentive, offered to pay more 

than market value because of the embargo on sending these parts to Iran. After the supplier 

referred the solicitation to investigating agents, an undercover agent began corresponding with 

Goudarzi regarding the proposed purchase, as well as other purchases of aircraft parts that he

sought. Those purchases included rotor blades for a particular model of attack helicopter, and 

most recently, jet engine parts listed on the U.S. Munitions List. Goudarzi met with the UC in 

person to purchase those parts and made payments to the UC towards their purchase. The 

indictment charges Goudarzi with conspiracy, money laundering and violations of the Arms 

Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The investigation 

was conducted by ICE and DCIS

• Hawk Air Defense Missile Batteries to Iran – On Nov. 1, 2012, British businessman Christopher 

Tappin, of Orpington, Kent, pleaded guilty in the Western District of Texas to aiding and abetting 

the illegal export of defense articles in connection with his efforts to export to Iran special 

components of the Hawk Air Defense Missile. At sentencing, he faces 33 months in prison and a 

fine of $11, 357. Tappin admitted that from December 2005 to January 2007, he knowingly aided 

and abetted others, including his Cyprus-based business associate Robert Gibson, and Robert 

Caldwell, of Portland, Ore., in an illegal attempt to export Zinc/Silver Oxide Reserve Batteries to 

Iran. These particular batteries, a special component of the Hawk Air Defense Missile, are 

designated as defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List and require a license from the U.S. State 

Department for export from the United States. In October 2006, Tappin wired approximately 

$25,000 from a London financial institution to a bank account in the United States as payment for 

five of the specialized batteries. Using false shipping documentation, Tappin arranged for the 

transfer of the batteries to the United Kingdom without an export license through his specifically 

designated freight forwarders in violation of export control regulations. During the investigation, 

Tappin agreed to reimburse the undercover agent for $5,000 in fines purportedly being assessed 

against him by U.S. Customs authorities after they had seized the shipment of batteries. Tappin 

also caused Caldwell to travel to San Antonio in January 2007 to take delivery of the batteries, 

ensure that they were shipped to him and to pay the undercover agent $5,000 for the current 

fines. On Feb. 7, 2007, Tappin was first charged in a federal indictment with one count each of 

conspiracy to illegally export defense articles; aiding and abetting the illegal export of defense 

articles, and conspiracy to conduct illegal financial transaction. Tappin was extradited from the 

United Kingdom to the United States for prosecution on Feb. 24, 2012. On Nov. 9, 2007, Robert 

Caldwell was sentenced in the Western District of Texas to 20 months in prison and two years 

supervised release for his role in the scheme. Robert Gibson was sentenced on Aug. 24, 2007 to a 

two-year prison term for his role in the scheme. The case was investigated by ICE.

• Stolen Tactical Laser Illuminators Overseas – On Oct. 30, 2012, Fidel Ignacio Cisneros was 

sentenced in the Middle District of Florida to 46 months in prison followed by two years 

supervised release for violating the Arms Export Control Act. Cisneros, a former master sergeant 

in the U.S. Army pleaded guilty to the charge on July 31, 2012. According to court documents, 

from 2007 to 2010, Cisneros served as a soldier in the U.S. Army, where he performed various 

missions in that capacity, in Iraq and elsewhere. During his deployment, Cisneros stole three 

Acquired Tactical Illuminating Laser Aimers (Atilla 200 lasers), an ACOG rifle scope, and other 

items. He brought all of the items back to Orlando without first obtaining permission from the 

Department of Defense. Using his eBay account, Cisneros auctioned one of the Atilla 200 lasers 
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to the highest bidder. Cisneros shipped the Atilla-200 laser from Orlando to a Japanese national 

in Tokyo, in exchange for $3,200. The Atilla 200 laser requires a State Department license to be 

exported out of the United States, which Cisneros did not have. In March 2010, Cisneros also 

auctioned a PEQ AN/PEQ-14 night vision pointer illuminator, which was shipped to California; a 

Thuraya Hughes 7101 Satellite phone GSM+GPS, which was shipped to Kuwait; a Thuraya 

Satellite phone docker FDU 2500, which was shipped to California; and a PEQ/Atilla 200 rail 

mounted laser, which was shipped to Nevada. On Jan. 26, 2011, Cisneros admitted to ICE agents 

that he knew it was probably wrong to sell the items and that civilians probably were not allowed 

to possess the items. That same day, agents recovered the remaining Atilla 200 lasers that 

Cisneros stole from the Army. Federal law enforcement agents in the United States and in Japan 

subsequently recovered all of the items Cisneros sold. Cisneros was charged in a May 16, 2012

indictment. This investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Military Aircraft Engines to Venezuela – On Oct. 29, 2012, Floyd D. Stilwell of Phoenix, 

Arizona, pleaded guilty in the District of Arizona to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export 

Control Act. Stilwell and Marsh Aviation Company of Mesa, Arizona, were indicted on Oct. 28, 

2010, for violating the Arms Export Control Act and conspiracy. The indictment alleged that 

beginning in Nov. 2005 through Feb. 2008, Stilwell Marsh Aviation and others contributed to the 

export of T-76 military aircraft engines from the United States to Venezuela for use by the 

Venezuelan Air Force. The T-76 aircraft engine was designed for the OV-10 Bronco Aircraft 

which is a light armed reconnaissance aircraft specifically suited for counterinsurgency missions. 

The indictment also alleges that the defendants furnished assistance to members of the 

Venezuelan Air Force, including training in the assembly, testing, maintenance and use of the T76 military aircraft engine without the required authorization from the State Department. The 

investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE, and the DCIS.

• Military Aircraft Engines and Components to Venezuelan Air Force – On Oct. 26, 2012, Kirk 

Drellich, the owner of SkyHigh Accessories, Inc., an aircraft parts company in Florida, was 

sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to one year and one day in prison and was fined 

$50,000, after pleading guilty earlier in the year to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control 

Act (AECA). On July 30, 2012, Victor Brown, an aircraft parts broker in Florida, pleaded guilty 

in the Southern District of Florida to conspiracy to violate the AECA. On July 27, 2012, Freddy 

Arguelles, a former Venezuelan Air Force pilot living in the U.S., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to 

violate the AECA. On July 13, 2012, Alberto Pichardo, an officer of the Venezuelan Air Force 

who was responsible for control of the Venezuelan Military Acquisitions Office in Doral, Fla., 

pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the AECA. Each of these four defendants was charged on 

June 25, 2012, with conspiring to violate the AECA in connection with their efforts to export to 

Venezuela U.S.-origin military aircraft engines and components from Nov. 2008 through Aug. 

2010. According to the charges, co-conspirators residing in Venezuela and Spain advised the 

defendants and other members of the conspiracy of specific defense articles that the Venezuelan 

Air Force wanted to purchase. Some of the co-conspirators, including Pichardo and Brown, also 

met with officials of the Venezuelan Air Force regarding these defense articles. The defendants 

allegedly purchased and obtained the requested defense articles from various U.S. suppliers. The 

defendants then made arrangements for the shipment of the defense articles to Venezuela. These 

items included T56 military aircraft engines and components for other military aircraft, including 

the F-16 fighter jet. Co-conspirators residing in foreign countries paid the defendants and other 

co-conspirators for their assistance in obtaining the defense articles. This investigation was 

conducted by the FBI.

• Military-Sensitive Parts to Iran – On Oct. 24, 2012, Susan Yip, a citizen of Taiwan, was 

sentenced in the Western District of Texas to two years in federal prison for her role in a 
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conspiracy to obtain and illegally export dual-use parts with military applications to Iran. A 17-

count indictment, returned on June 15, 2012 and later unsealed, charged Yip, Mehrdad Foomanie 

of Iran, and Merdad Ansari of the United Arab Emirates, with conspiracy to violate the Iranian 

Trade Regulations, conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On July 

20, 2012, Yip pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian Trade Regulations. 

By pleading guilty, Yip admitted that from 2007 to 2011, she acted as a broker and conduit for 

Foomanie to buy items in the United States and have them unlawfully shipped to Iran. According 

to the indictment, Foomanie bought or attempted to buy items in the United States and arranged 

to have them unlawfully shipped to Iran through his companies in Iran, Hong Kong and China. 

Ansari allegedly attempted to transship and transshipped cargo obtained from the United States 

by Yip and Foohmanie using Ansari’s company in Dubai. Foohmanie and Ansari remain 

fugitives. In her plea, Yip admitted to primarily using her companies in Taiwan and in Hong 

Kong to carry out the fraudulent scheme. The parts Yip obtained and attempted to obtain for Iran 

were worth millions of dollars, and could be used in such military systems as nuclear weaponry, 

missile guidance and development, secure tactical radio communication, offensive electronic 

warfare, military electronic countermeasures and radar warning and surveillance systems. From 

Oct. 9, 2007, to June 15, 2011, the defendants obtained or attempted to obtain from companies 

worldwide over 105,000 parts valued at some $2,630,800 involving more than 1,250 transactions. 

The defendants conducted 599 transactions with 63 different U.S. companies where they obtained 

or attempted to obtain parts from U.S. companies without notifying these companies the parts 

were being shipped to Iran or getting the required U.S. licenses to ship these parts to Iran. The 

case was investigated by ICE, FBI, DCIS and the Department of Commerce.

• Military Flight Helmets and Night Vision Goggles to Panama – On Oct. 23, 2012, Martyn 

Caulfield, a British national illegally present in the United States, was sentenced in the Northern 

District of Florida to two years in prison after pleading guilty on June 27, 2012 to a five-count 

information charging him with illegally exporting defense articles, being an alien in possession of 

a firearm, and money laundering. Caulfield purchased new and used military equipment, 

including military flight helmets and advanced night vision goggles, and then resold these 

restricted defense articles over an eBay auction site for export without the required State 

Department licenses. During online discussions with undercover law enforcement agents, 

Caulfield agreed to export military flight helmets and night vision goggles to agents posing as 

buyers from Panama. The shipments were intercepted before they departed the United States. 

More than $81,000 was seized and forfeited from Caulfied in connection with the investigation. 

This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Computers and Related Equipment to Iran – On Oct. 18, 2012, in the Middle District of Florida, 

Mohammad Reza Hajian, a resident of Tampa, was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered

to forfeit $10 million for conspiracy to violate the Iranian Transaction Regulations. On July 11, 

2012, Hajian pleaded guilty to conspiracy to export roughly $10 million worth of computers and 

related equipment from the United States to Iran through the United Arab Emirates without first 

obtaining an export license from the Treasury Department. Additionally, Hajian as Chief 

Executive Officer of his computer companies, Nexiant LLC, RH International LLC, and P & P 

Computers LLC, pleaded guilty on behalf of the companies to count two of the information, 

charging these companies with conspiracy to export computers and related equipment to Iran 

without first obtaining an export license from the Treasury Department. The case was 

investigated by ICE and the Department of Commerce.

• Trade Secrets to South Korea – On Oct. 18, 2012, South Korea-based Kolon Industries Inc. and 

several of its executives and employees were indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for 

allegedly engaging in a multi-year campaign to steal trade secrets related to DuPont’s Kevlar 
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para-aramid fiber and Teijin Limited’s Twaron para-aramid fiber. The indictment seeks 

forfeiture of at least $225 million in proceeds from the alleged theft of trade secrets from Kolon’s 

competitors and charges Kolon with one count of conspiring to convert trade secrets, four counts 

of theft of trade secrets and one count of obstruction of justice. Kolon makes a product called 

Heracron, which is a recent entrant into the para-aramid fiber market as a competitor to products 

called Kevlar and Twaron. Para-aramid fibers are used to make, for example, body armor, 

fiberoptic cables and automotive and industrial products. Kevlar is produced by E. I. du Pont de 

Nemours and Company (DuPont), one of the largest chemical companies in the United States. 

For decades, Kevlar has competed against Twaron, a para-aramid fiber product produced by

Teijin Limited, one of the largest chemical companies in Japan. According to the indictment, 

from July 2002 through February 2009, Kolon allegedly sought to improve its Heracron product 

by targeting current and former employees at DuPont and Teijin and hiring them to serve as 

consultants, then asking these consultants to reveal information that was confidential and 

proprietary. The indictment alleges that in July 2002, Kolon obtained confidential information 

related to an aspect of DuPont’s manufacturing process for Kevlar, and within three years Kolon 

had replicated it. This successful misappropriation of DuPont’s confidential information, the 

indictment alleges, spurred Kolon leadership to develop a multi-phase plan in November 2005 to 

secure additional trade secret information from its competitors, by targeting people with 

knowledge of both pre-1990 para-aramid technology and post-1990 technologies. Kolon is 

alleged to have retained at least five former DuPont employees as consultants. Kolon allegedly 

met with these people individually on multiple occasions from 2006 through 2008 to solicit and 

obtain sensitive, proprietary information that included details about DuPont’s manufacturing 

processes for Kevlar, experiment results, blueprints and designs, prices paid to suppliers and new 

fiber technology. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Sensitive Microwave Amplifiers to China and India -- On Oct. 17, 2012, Timothy Gormley, an 

export coordinator at a U.S. firm that manufactures microwave amplifiers, pleaded guilty in the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania to illegally exporting amplifiers that are controlled for national 

security reasons due to their applications in military systems, including radar jamming and 

weapons guidance systems. Gormley was charged in an Aug. 9, 2012, criminal information. The 

information alleged that between 2007 and 2011, Gormley failed to obtain the required 

Commerce Department license on behalf of the company for 56 shipments sent to destinations 

requiring such licenses for the shipment of these goods. The information cited specific shipments 

of amplifiers from the United States to customers in India and China that Gormley caused without 

the required export license. This investigation was conducted by the Department of Commerce.

• Firearms to China – On Oct. 4, 2012, Zhifu Lin, a Chinese national and resident of West 

Virginia, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York to violating the Arms Export Control 

Act and to illegal weapons trafficking. Lin’s plea came after Joseph Debose, a resident of North 

Carolina and former Staff Seargent in a U.S. Special Forces National Guard Unit, pleaded guilty 

on Sept. 6, 2012 to violating the Arms Export Control Act. Lin, Debose and others exported 

multiple shipments of firearms from the U.S. to China by secreting them in packages and 

transporting them to shipping companies, including one in Queens, N.Y., to be sent to China. 

The weapons included numerous semiautomatic handguns, rifles, and shotguns. The smuggling 

scheme came to light after authorities in China seized a package containing firearms with defaced 

serial numbers shipped from Queens, N.Y. Thereafter, U.S. agents traveled to China and 

examined the firearms. Using forensic techniques, agents learned that one of the seized weapons 

had originally been purchased in North Carolina. Among the weapons seized in China were those 

Debose provided to his associates for export. On May 20, 2012, Debose was arrested in 

Smithfield, N.C., pursuant to a May 17, 2012 criminal complaint charging him with illegally 

exporting firearms to China without the required licenses. Lin and another Chinese national Lila 
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Li, were also arrested and charged in connection with the case in an April 16, 2012 indictment in 

the Eastern District of New York. This investigation was conducted by ICE, ATF, IRS and BIS

• Controlled Microelectronics to Russian Military and Intelligence Agencies – On Oct. 3, 2012, 

an indictment was unsealed in the Eastern District of New York charging 11 members of a 

Russian procurement network operating in the United States and Russia, as well as a Houstonbased export company, Arc Electronics Inc., and a Moscow-based procurement firm, Apex 

System L.L.C. ,with illegally exporting high-tech microelectronics from the United States to 

Russian military and intelligence agencies. Alexander Fishenko, an owner and executive of both 

the American and Russian companies, is also charged with operating as an unregistered agent of 

the Russian government inside the U.S. by illegally procuring the microelectronics on behalf of 

the Russian government. The microelectronics allegedly exported to Russia are subject to U.S. 

controls due to their potential use in a wide range of military systems, including radar and 

surveillance systems, weapons guidance systems and detonation triggers. In conjunction with the 

unsealing of these charges, the Department of Commerce added 165 foreign persons and 

companies who received, transshipped, or otherwise facilitated the export of controlled 

commodities by the defendants to its “Entity List.” As alleged in the indictment, between 

October 2008 and the present, Fishenko and the other defendants engaged in a conspiracy to 

obtain advanced microelectronics from manufacturers and suppliers located in the United States 

and to export those high-tech goods to Russia, while evading the government export licensing 

system. The microelectronics shipped to Russia included analog-to-digital converters, static 

random access memory chips, microcontrollers and microprocessors. The defendants allegedly 

exported many of these goods, frequently through intermediary procurement firms, to Russian 

end users, including Russian military and intelligence agencies, and went to great lengths to 

conceal their procurement activities. The investigation uncovered a Russian Ministry of Defense 

document designating an Apex subsidiary as a company “certified” to procure and deliver 

military equipment and electronics. The FBI recovered a letter sent by a specialized electronics 

laboratory of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s primary domestic intelligence 

agency, to an Apex affiliate regarding certain microchips obtained for the FSB by Arc. The 

defendants’ principal port of export for these goods was John F. Kennedy International Airport in 

New York. In addition to Fishenko, Arc and Apex, the indictment also charges Shavkat 

Abdullaev, Lyudmila Bagdikian, Anastasia Diatlova, Viktoria Klebanova, Alexander Posobilov, 

Sevinj Taghiyeva, and Svetalina Zagon, who were arrested in Houston on Oct. 2 and Oct 3, 2012. 

Three others charged in the indictment, Sergey Klinov, Yuri Savin, and Dimitriy Shegurov, were 

based overseas and were not arrested. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, Department 

of Commerce (BIS), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the IRS.

• Military Technical Data and Trade Secrets to China – On Sept. 26, 2012, Sixing Liu, aka 

“Steve Liu,” a native of China with a PhD in electrical engineering who worked as a senior staff 

engineer for Space & Navigation, a New Jersey-based division of L-3 Communications, was 

convicted in the District of New Jersey of exporting sensitive U.S. military technology to China, 

stealing trade secrets and lying to federal agents. The jury convicted Liu of nine of 11 counts of 

an April 5, 2012 second superseding indictment, specifically six counts of violating the Arms 

Export Control Act, one count of possessing stolen trade secrets in violation of the Economic 

Espionage Act, one count of transporting stolen property, and one count of lying to federal 

agents. The jury acquitted Liu on two counts of lying to federal agents. According to documents 

filed in the case and evidence presented at trial, in 2010, Liu stole thousands of electronic files 

from his employer, L-3 Communications, Space and Navigation Division. The stolen files 

detailed the performance and design of guidance systems for missiles, rockets, target locators, and 

unmanned aerial vehicles. Liu stole the files to position and prepare himself for future 

employment in China. As part of that plan, Liu delivered presentations about the technology at 
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several Chinese universities, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and conferences organized by 

Chinese government entities. However, Liu was not charged with any crimes related to those 

presentations. On Nov. 12, 2010, Liu boarded a flight from Newark to China. Upon his return to 

the United States on Nov. 29, 2010, agents found Liu in possession of a non-work-issued 

computer found to contain the stolen material. The following day, Liu lied to ICE agents about 

the extent of his work on U.S. defense technology. The State Department later verified that 

several of the stolen files on Liu’s computer contained technical data that relates to defense items 

listed on the United States Munitions List. The jury also heard testimony that Liu’s company 

trained him about the United States’ export control laws and told him that most of the company’s 

products were covered by those laws. Liu was first arrested on March 8, 201, in Chicago on a 

complaint in the District of New Jersey charging him with one count of exporting defense-related 

technical data without a license. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE and CBP.

• Aerospace-Grade Carbon Fiber to China – On Sept. 26, 2012, a criminal complaint was 

unsealed in the Eastern District of New York charging Ming Suan Zhang with attempting to 

illegally export thousands of pounds of aerospace-grade carbon fiber from the United States to 

China. According to the complaint, Zhang was arrested in the United States after trying to 

negotiate a deal to acquire the specialized carbon fiber, a high-tech material used frequently in the 

military, defense and aerospace industries, and which is therefore closely regulated by the U.S. 

Department of Commerce to combat nuclear proliferation and terrorism. The complaint alleges 

that Zhang came to the attention of federal authorities earlier this year after two Taiwanese 

accomplices attempted to locate large quantities of the specialized carbon fiber via remote 

Internet contacts. In July 2012, Zhang allegedly told an accomplice: “When I place the order, I 

place one to two tons. However, the first shipment will be for 100 kg [kilograms].” Shortly 

thereafter, Zhang contacted an undercover law enforcement agent in an effort to finalize the deal 

to export the carbon fiber from New York to China. In one recorded conversation, Zhang stated 

that he had an urgent need for the carbon fiber in connection with the scheduled test flight of a 

Chinese fighter plane. Zhang then arranged a meeting with an undercover agent to take 

possession of a carbon fiber sample, which was to be shipped to China and analyzed to verify its 

authenticity. Zhang was subsequently placed under arrest. This investigation was conducted by 

ICE and BIS.

• Industrial Supplies for Iranian Petrochemical Companies – On Sept. 26, 2012, Iranian national 

Saeed Talebi pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to conspiring to violate the 

International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) stemming from his work with others to 

ship to Iran parts and goods for use in industrial operations. The indictment against Talebi was 

first unsealed on July 12, 2012 and charged him with conspiring to violate IEEPA and conspiring 

to commit money laundering. Talebi worked to ship industrial goods and parts from U.S.-based 

firms to Dubai and that these goods were then to be sent to various petrochemical companies 

located in Iran. In the course of the scheme, Talebi allegedly caused funds to be wired to the 

United States, including more than $300,000 that was sent to a bank account in Manhattan. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS, with assistance from CBP.

• Theft of Trade Secrets for Potential Use in China – On Sept. 19, 2012, Chunlai Yang, a former 

senior software engineer for Chicago-based CME Group, Inc., pleaded guilty in the Northern 

District of Illinois to two counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing source code and other 

proprietary information while at the same time pursuing plans to improve an electronic trading 

exchange in China. Yang admitted that he downloaded more than 10,000 files containing CME 

computer source code that made up a substantial part of the operating systems for the Globex 

electronic trading platform. The government maintains that the potential loss was between $50 

million and $100 million. Yang began working for CME Group in 2000 and was a senior 
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software engineer at the time of his arrest. Between late 2010, and June 30, 2011, Yang 

downloaded more than 10,000 computer files containing CME computer source code from 

CME’s secure internal computer system to his CME-issued work computer. He then transferred 

many of these files from his work computer to his personal USB flash drives, and then transferred 

many of these files from his flash drives to his personal computers and hard drives at his home.

Yang also admitted that he downloaded thousands of others CME files. Yang admitted that he 

and two unnamed business partners developed plans to form a business referred to as the 

Tongmei (Gateway to America) Futures Exchange Software Technology Company (Gateway), 

whose purpose was to increase the trading volume at the Zhangjiagang, China, chemical 

electronic trading exchange (the Zhangjiagang Exchange.) The Zhangjiagang Exchange was to 

become a transfer station to China for advanced technologies companies around the world. Yang 

expected that Gateway would provide the exchange with technology through written source code 

to allow for high trading volume, high trading speeds, and multiple trading functions. Yang was 

indicted on Sept. 28, 2011. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Trade Secrets to China – On Sept. 4, 2012, Chinese citizens Ji Li Huang and Xiao Guang Qi 

were charged in a criminal complaint in the Western District of Missouri with attempting to 

purchase stolen trade secrets stolen from Pittsburgh Corning for the purpose of opening a plant in 

China to compete with Pittsburgh Corning. Pittsburgh Corning, headquartered in Pittsburgh, 

manufactures various grades or densities of cellular glass insulation sold under the trade name 

FOAMGLAS and had recently made technological advances in the formulation and 

manufacturing process of FOAMGLAS insulation. According to the complaint, the defendants 

attempted to pay $100,000 to an FBI cooperating source for confidential and proprietary 

information stolen from Pittsburgh Corning. The defendants were arrested on Sept. 2, 2012 after 

meeting with the confidential source who provided them documents that were purportedly stolen 

trade secrets from the company. The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Motorola Trade Secrets to China – On Aug. 29, 2012, Hanjuan Jin, a former software engineer 

for Motorola, was sentenced in the Northern District of Illinois to four years in prison for stealing 

trade secrets from Motorola, specifically Motorola’s proprietary iDEN telecommunications 

technology, for herself and for Sun Kaisens, a company that developed products for the Chinese 

military. According to court documents filed in the case, Motorola spent more than $400 million 

researching and developing iDEN technology in just a matter of years. On Feb. 8, 2012, Jin was 

found guilty of three counts of stealing trade secrets. Jin, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, 

possessed more than 1,000 electronic and paper Motorola proprietary documents when she was 

stopped by U.S. authorities at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport as she attempted to travel 

to China on Feb. 28, 2007. The judge presiding over the case found her not guilty of three counts 

of economic espionage for the benefit of the government of China and its military. According to 

the evidence at trial, Jin began working for Motorola in 1998, and took medical leave in February 

2006. Between June and November 2006, while still on sick leave, Jin pursued employment in 

China with Sun Kaisens, a Chinese telecommunications firm that developed products for the 

Chinese military. Between November 2006 and February 2007, Jin returned to China and did 

work for Sun Kaisens on projects for the Chinese military. On Feb. 15, 2007, Jin returned to the 

United States from China and reserved a flight to China scheduled to depart on Feb. 28, 2007. Jin 

advised Motorola that she was ready to return to work at Motorola, without informing Motorola

that she planned to return to China to work for Sun Kaisens. On Feb. 26, 2007, she returned to 

Motorola, and accessed hundreds of technical documents belonging to Motorola on its secure 

internal computer network. As she attempted to depart from Chicago to China, authorities seized 

numerous materials, some of which provided a description of communication feature that 

Motorola incorporates into its telecommunications products. Authorities also recovered classified 

Chinese documents describing telecommunication projects for the Chinese military. Jin was 
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charged with theft of trade secrets in an April 1, 2008 indictment. A superseding indictment 

returned on Dec. 9, 2008 charged her with economic espionage. The investigation was conducted 

by the FBI, with assistance from U.S Customs and Border Protection. 

• Anti-Aircraft Missile, Anti-Tank Weapons and Machine Guns to Mexican Drug Cartel – On 

Aug. 22, 2012, Mexican national David Diaz-Sosa was sentenced in the District of Arizona to 25 

years in prison after pleading guilty on April 19, 2011, to several violations related to his efforts 

to acquire military-grade weaponry in the United States for export to Mexico for use by a 

Mexican drug trafficking organization. Diaz-Sosa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to acquire and 

export an anti-aircraft missile, conspiracy to possess machine guns and transfer guns for use in a 

drug trafficking crime as well as methamphetamine violations. In 2009, Diaz-Sosa began 

negotiating with undercover agents for the purchase of weapons for the Sinaloan Drug Cartel in 

Mexico, including a Stinger missile, several anti-tank weapons, grenade launchers, grenades, and 

machine guns. Diaz-Sosa and his associates agreed to exchange cash and methamphetamine as 

payment for the weapons. On Feb. 17, 2010, Diaz-Sosa and Jorge DeJesus-Casteneda were 

arrested as they sought to finalize the weapons exchange with undercover agents. Diaz-Sosa, 

DeJesus-Castaneda, and an additional defendant, Emilia Palomino-Robles, were charged in a 

sealed indictment on March 16, 2010. Palomino-Robles pleaded guilty on April 13, 2011 to one 

drug violation, stemming from her role as a money and drug courier in the weapons-for-drugs 

transaction. On April 27, 2011, DeJesus-Casteneda was convicted of one count of possession 

with intent to distribute over 500 grams of methamphetamine, but was acquitted of other charges. 

DeJesus-Casteneda was sentenced on Aug. 3, 2011 to 146 months in prison and five years 

supervised release. DeJesus-Castenada was sentenced to 146 months incarceration on Aug. 3, 

2011. Palomino-Robles was sentenced on March 5, 2012 to 10 years in prison and 5 years 

supervised release for her role in the scheme. This investigation was conducted by the ATF and 

the DEA. 

• Defense Services, Training, Technical Data, Body Armor and Ammunition to Foreign Nations

-- On Aug. 7, 2012, a criminal information was unsealed in the Eastern District of North Carolina

charging Academi LLC, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide and Xe Services, LLC, with 

violating the Arms Export Control Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act

(IEEPA), as well as federal firearms laws and other violations. A deferred prosecution agreement 

(DPA) was also unsealed on the same day, in which the company admitted to certain facts set 

forth in the bill of information and agreed to pay $7.5 million a fine. The DPA also 

acknowledged and referenced a $42 million settlement between the company and the State 

Department to settle civil violations of the Arms Export Control Act. The criminal information 

alleged the company violated IEEPA by exporting satellite phones to the Sudan in November 

2005 without a license from the Treasury Department. The information also alleged that the 

company violated arms export laws by proposing to provide security services and a threat 

assessment to the government of the Sudan; by providing military training to Canadian military 

and law enforcement officials between 2006 and 2008; by providing technical data related to the 

construction of armored personnel carriers to individuals from Sweden and Denmark between 

2006 and 2008; and by exporting ammunition and body armor to Iraq and Afghanistan between 

2004 and 2006 – all without the required State Department export licenses. The information also 

alleged that Academi possessed automatic weapons without registration or permission and that it 

falsely represented to the ATF that five firearms were owned by certain individuals, when the 

weapons had been given as a gift to the King of Jordan and his traveling entourage in June 2005. 

This case was investigated by the FBI, IRS, ATF, DCIS and ICE.

• Sensitive Military Encryption Technology to China – On July 31, 2012, Chi Tong Kuok, a 

resident of Macau, China, pleaded guilty in the Southern District of California to one count of 
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conspiracy to illegally export defense articles and to smuggle goods from the United States. 

According to the guilty plea, Kuok and others conspired to purchase and export from the United 

States defense articles, including communication, precision location and cryptographic 

equipment, without a license from the State Department. Kuok also caused $1,700 to be sent to 

the United States for the purchase and unlicensed export of a KG-175 Taclane Encryptor. 

According to court documents, the KG-175 Taclane Encryptor was developed by General 

Dynamics under a contract with the National Security Agency for use by the U.S. military to 

encrypt Internet Protocol communications. Kuok was first arrested on June 17, 2009 in Atlanta, 

Ga., after he arrived from Paris to catch a connecting flight to Panama in order to meet with 

undercover federal agents to take possession of controlled U.S. technology. A criminal complaint 

was filed on June 23, 2009 and an indictment returned on July 7, 2009. On May 11, 2010, Kuok 

was convicted at trial of conspiracy to export defense articles without a license and to smuggle 

goods to Macau and Hong Kong, China; smuggling goods; attempting to export defense articles 

without a license; and money laundering. On Sept. 13, 2012, Kuok was sentenced to 96 months 

in prison. Kuok appealed and in January 2012, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated 

Kuok’s convictions on counts three and four and remanded to the district court for a new trial on 

counts one and two. The appeals court ruled that Kuok should have been allowed to put on a 

defense that he was forced into trying to procure the equipment by the Chinese government. 

Kuok pleaded guilty before the second trial. This investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Military Gyroscopes to China – On July 30, 2012, Kevin Zhang, aka Zhao Wei Zhang, was 

arrested as he attempted to enter the United States from Canada at a port of entry in Washington 

state. Zhang had been charged on Jan. 14, 2011 in a sealed indictment in the Southern District of 

California with one count of conspiracy to export defense articles (specifically G-200 

Dynamically Tuned Gyroscopes) from the United States to China without a license or approval 

from the State Department. According to the indictment, these particular gyroscopes may be used 

in tactical missile guidance and unmanned aircraft systems. Zhang allegedly instructed 

individuals in the U.S. to obtain and export defense articles, including the gyroscopes, to China 

and allegedly sought to use a courier to smuggle the gyroscopes out of the U.S. The indictment 

alleges that Zhang, acting on behalf of a client in China, sought to purchase three gyroscopes for 

$21,000 from an individual in the United States as a prelude to future purchases of gyroscopes. 

This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• TOW Missile Components to Iran – On July 26, 2012, Andro Telemi, a naturalized U.S. citizen 

from Iran who resided in California, pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Illinois to one 

count of attempting to illegally export defense articles in connection with his efforts to export 

TOW and TOW2 missile components to Iran. He was later sentenced on Nov. 30, 2012 to five 

years probation with 6 months home confinement and electronic monitoring and a $10,000 fine.

Telemi was indicted in December 2009, along with Davoud Baniameri, an Iranian citizen and 

who lived in Woodland Hills, Calif. A superseding indictment returned in July 2010 charged 

Telemi, Baniameri and Syed Majid Mousavi, an Iranian citizen living in Iran. According to court 

documents, sometime before Oct. 2008, Mousavi, based in Iran, contacted Baniameri in 

California and requested that he purchase Marconi radio test sets for illegal export from the 

United States to Iran via Dubai. Baniameri purchased these sets from an Illinois company and 

later exported them to Iran via Dubai. Mousavi also requested that Baniameri purchase and 

export to Iran, via Dubai, ten connector adaptors for the TOW and TOW2 missile system, which 

are used on the U.S. Army’s Bradley fighting vehicle and the U.S. Marine Corp’s AH-1W Cobra 

attack helicopter. Baniameri later negotiated the purchase of these items from an Illinois 

company for $9,450 and directed Telemi to assist him in this effort and to take possession of the 

items. To facilitate the export of these goods, Baniameri arranged to fly to Iran, but he was 

arrested before leaving the country. Baniameri conducted business via Pacific Green Valley, a 
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firm in California, while Telemi conducted business as Oceanic Import Cars, Inc., a firm in 

California. On May 31, 2011, Baniameri pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally export goods 

and technology to Iran and to attempt to illegally export defense articles in connection with the 

TOW missile components and radio test sets. Baniameri was sentenced on Aug. 12, 2011 to 51 

months in prison. This investigation was conducted by ICE, DCIS, BIS, and IRS. 

• Assault Rifles to Mexico – On July 24, 2012, Marino Castro Jr., was sentenced in the Western 

District of Texas to 20 years in prison followed by three years supervised release after pleading 

guilty on Dec. 2, 2010 to one count of smuggling and one count of felon in possession of a 

firearm with an obliterated serial number. According to court records, numerous defendants, 

under the direction of ringleaders Castro and Edward Levar Davis of Eagle Pass, TX, conspired 

to illegally purchase firearms from San Antonio area firearms dealers. Once retrieved from straw 

purchasers, Castro and Davis arranged to transport the firearms to a staging location in Eagle Pass 

where they were to be smuggled into Mexico to the Los Zetas drug trafficking organization. 

Between May 2010 and August 2010, authorities intercepted five shipments attributed to this 

trafficking cell and seized over 200 firearms, including handguns, AK-47 and AR15-style assault 

rifles and one .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle. The case was investigated by ICE and ATF.

• Military-Grade Riflescopes Overseas – On July 13, 2012, Geoffrey Roose was sentenced in the 

Western District of Washington to 10 months in prison and two years supervised release for his 

efforts to sell military-grade riflescopes overseas via eBay. Roose was arrested on a complaint on 

Dec. 6, 2011, indicted on Feb. 22, 2012 and pleaded guilty March 28, 2012 to attempting to 

violate the Arms Export Control Act. Federal agents learned that Roose had sold exportrestricted rifle scopes to individuals overseas without the required license and warned him that 

such exports were restricted. Despite the warning, Roose continued to offer the items for sale on 

eBay with no limitation on their export. He later sold one of the military scopes to an undercover 

agent who requested that it be sent to Europe. This case was investigated by ICE.

• Materials for Gas Centrifuges and Other Nuclear-Related Goods to Iran – On July 12, 2012, a 

grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment charging Parviz Khaki, a 

citizen of Iran, and Zongcheng Yi, a resident of China, for their alleged efforts to obtain and 

illegally export to Iran U.S.-origin materials used to construct, operate and maintain gas 

centrifuges to enrich uranium, including maraging steel, aluminum alloys, mass spectrometers, 

vacuum pumps and other items. Khaki was also accused of conspiring to procure radioactive 

source materials from the United States for customers in Iran. The indictment charges Khaki and 

Yi each with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 

conspiracy to defraud the United States, smuggling, illegally exporting U.S. goods to Iran in 

violation of IEEPA; and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Khaki was arrested on May 

24, 2012, by authorities in the Philippines in connection with a U.S. provisional arrest request 

stemming from a March 8, 2012 indictment in the District of Columbia. Yi, who is purported to 

be the managing director of Monalila Co. LTD, a toy company in Guangzhou City, China, 

remains at large. From around October 2008 through January 2011, Khaki, Yi and others 

allegedly conspired to cause the export of goods from the United States to Iran without a Treasury 

Department license. In carrying out the conspiracy, Khaki directed Yi and others to contact U.S. 

companies about purchasing U.S.-origin goods. Yi and other conspirators then purchased goods 

from various U.S. companies and had the goods exported from the United States through China 

and Hong Kong to Khaki and others in Iran. Yi and others made false statements to U.S. 

companies on behalf of Khaki to conceal that Iran was the final destination and end-user of the 

goods. For example, the indictment alleges that Khaki reached out to an individual in China, as 

well as to Yi, and to an undercover agent in the United States to obtain 20 tons of C-350 

maraging steel from the United States for Khaki’s customer in Iran. In late 2008, Khaki also 
14

reached out to an individual in China about procuring 20 tons of 7075-O aluminum alloy 80mm 

rods and 20 tons of 7075-T6 aluminum alloy 150 mm rods from the United States or Europe.

Khaki also allegedly sought to obtain mass spectrometers from the United States, including a 

magnetic mass spectrometer for the isotopic analysis of gaseous uranium hexafluoride, which is

used in the gas centrifuge process to enrich uranium. Khaki and Yi also conspired to obtain 

other items from U.S. companies that can be used for gas centrifuges, including measuring 

instruments, MKS Baratron pressure transducers, vacuum pumps and other accessories, according 

to the charge. Khaki also allegedly sought to obtain radioactive source materials from the United 

States, including barium-133 source, europium-152 source, cobalt-57 source, and cadmium-109 

source. Finally, the indictment alleges the defendants were able to successfully cause the illegal 

export of two Twister Speed Lathes as well as nickel alloy 120 wire from the U.S. through China 

to Iran. This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Assault Rifle Magazines to Mexico – On July 9, 2012, Mexican national Teodoro Sanchez-Alejo 

and Alejandro Rivera-Ruiz of Laredo, Texas, pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Texas to 

attempting to illegally smuggle a total of 300 assault rifle magazines to Mexico. The magazines 

were designed for AK-47 type assault rifles and M-16/M-4/AR-15 type assault rifles. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE, ATF and CBP.

• Military Software Used For China’s First Modern Attack Helicopter -- On June 28, 2012, in the 

District of Connecticut, Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. (PWC), a Canadian subsidiary of 

Connecticut-based defense contractor United Technologies Corp. (UTC), pleaded guilty to 

violating the Arms Export Control Act and making false statements in connection with its illegal 

export to China of U.S.-origin military software that was used in the development of China’s first 

modern military attack helicopter, the Z-10. In addition, UTC, its U.S.-based subsidiary 

Hamilton Sundstrand Corp. (HSC), and PWC all agreed to pay more than $75 million as part of a 

global settlement with the Justice Department and the State Department in connection with 

various export violations, including those related to the Z-10, and for making false and belated 

disclosures to the U.S. government about the illegal exports for the Z-10. A three-count criminal 

information was filed against the companies. Count one charged PWC with violating the Arms 

Export Control Act for the illegal export of defense articles to China for the Z-10 helicopter. 

Specifically, in 2002 and 2003 PWC knowingly and willfully caused HSC military software used 

to test and operate PWC engines to be exported to China for the Z-10 without any U.S. export 

license. PWC knew from the start of the Z-10 project in 2000 that the Chinese were developing 

an attack helicopter and that supplying it with U.S.-origin components would be illegal. 

According to court documents, PWC’s illegal conduct was driven by profit. PWC anticipated 

that its work on the Z-10 attack helicopter in China would open the door to a far more lucrative 

civilian helicopter market in China potentially worth as much as $2 billion to PWC. Count two 

of the information charged PWC, UTC, and HSC with making false statements about these illegal 

exports to the State Department in their belated disclosures, which did not begin until 2006. 

Count three charged PWC and HSC for their failure to timely inform the State Department of the 

unlawful export of defense articles to China, an embargoed nation, as required by U.S. export 

regulations. This is the first case in which the provisions in count three have been enforced 

criminally. While PWC pleaded guilty to counts one and two, prosecution of PWC, UTC, and 

HSC on the other charges is deferred for two years, provided that the companies abide by the 

terms of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. In addition to the 

resolution of the criminal charges, as part of a global settlement, UTC also resolved over 500 

additional administrative charges with the State Department. Those charges involved more than 

800 exports in violation of the Arms Export Control Act from the mid-1990s to 2011. In 

connection with the global settlement with the Justice and State Departments, PWC, UTC, and 

HSC agreed to pay more than $75 million in penalties, subject themselves to independent 
15

monitoring for several years, and be required to comply with an extensive training and remedial 

action program to strengthen their export compliance. This investigation was conducted by ICE, 

DCIS, FBI, Commerce and the State Department.

• Carbon Fiber Material to Iran – On June 21, 2012, Richard Phillips, a resident of the Bronx, 

N.Y. was sentenced in the Eastern District of New York to 92 months in prison for attempting to 

export carbon fiber material to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers 

Act. Phillips pleaded guilty to this charge on Jan. 18, 2012. According to court filings, in 

October 2011, Phillips offered his services and expertise in exporting a spool of carbon fiber to 

Tehran, Iran, via the Philippines. The two main applications of carbon fiber in specialized 

technology, including aerospace and nuclear technology, and in general engineering and 

transportation. After a series of communications with an undercover federal agent in which he 

was warned of the law regarding exports of carbon fiber to Iran, Phillips insisted on moving 

forward with the export. He took possession of a spool of carbon fiber which was placed into a 

shipping container and affixed a label to the contained addressed to the Philippines, where it was 

to be forwarded to Iran. Phillips was first charged by criminal complaint on Oct. 21, 2011. This 

investigation was conducted by ICE and the DCIS.

• $619 Million Fine Against ING Bank for Transactions with Iran and Cuba – On June 12, 

2012, ING Bank, N.V., a global bank based in Amsterdam, agreed to forfeit $619 million to the 

Justice Department and the New York County District Attorney’s Office for conspiring to violate 

U.S. sanctions on Iran and Cuba as well as New York state laws by illegally moving more than $2 

billion (via more than 20,000 transactions) through the U.S. financial system on behalf of 

sanctioned entities in Iran and Cuba. This conduct caused unaffiliated U.S. banks to unwittingly 

process transactions that should have been blocked or stopped pursuant to Treasury Department 

regulations. On June 12, 2012, a criminal information was filed in the District of Columbia 

charging ING Bank with one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act. ING Bank waived the federal 

indictment, agreed to the filing of the information, accepted responsibility for its criminal conduct 

and that of its employees, and agreed to pay $619 million to the Justice Department and the New 

York County District Attorney’s office under deferred prosecution agreements with each. The 

fine represented the largest against a financial institution in connection with an investigation into 

U.S. sanctions and related offenses. The Justice Department’s case against ING Bank arose out 

of ongoing investigations by the National Security Division and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the 

District of Columbia into the illegal export of goods from the United States to sanctioned 

countries, including Iran. For instance, ING processed payments on behalf of one customer, 

Aviation Services International B.V. (ASI), a Dutch aviation company which was the subject of a 

U.S. Commerce Department-initiated criminal investigation, through the United States for trade 

services relating to the procurement by ASI of dual-use U.S. aviation parts for ASI’s Iranian 

clients. The ING Bank investigation also resulted in part from a criminal referral from OFAC, 

which was conducting its own probe of ING Bank. The ING Bank investigation was conducted 

by the FBI, IRS, with assistance from OFAC and the Commerce Department.

• Firearms to Haiti – On June 5, 2012, Jean Gordy Gedeon, a national of Haiti, pleaded guilty in 

the Middle District of Florida to smuggling firearms in connection with his efforts to send 

firearms to Haiti. Gedeon arranged with an undercover agent to purchase eleven firearms that he 

said he intended to smuggle to Haiti. He was arrested on May 30, 2012 after paying $1,100 to the 

undercover agent for four pistols and a machine gun. The case was investigated by ATF.
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• Pressure Transducers with Nuclear Applications to China and Elsewhere -- On May 22, 2012, 

Qiang Hu, aka Johnson Hu, 47, a Chinese national and resident of Shanghai was arrested after he 

arrived in Massachusetts for a business meeting. He had been charged in a May 18, 2012 

criminal complaint in the District of Massachusetts with conspiracy to illegally export from the 

United States to China and elsewhere dual-use pressure transducers in violation of the 

International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The complaint was unsealed after his 

arrest. The pressure transducers in question, manufactured by MKS Instruments headquartered in 

Andover, Mass., are controlled for export by the Commerce Department because they can be used 

in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium and produce weapons-grade uranium, according to the 

complaint. Specifically, they can be used to measure gas pressure of uranium hexafluoride in 

centrifuge cascades. According to the complaint, Hu worked as a sales manager for a subsidiary 

of MKS Instruments in Shanghai, where he has been employed since 2008. Hu and his coconspirators allegedly caused thousands of MKS export-controlled pressure transducers, worth 

more than $6.5 million, to be illegally exported from the United States to unauthorized end-users 

in China and elsewhere using export licenses fraudulently obtained from the Department of 

Commerce. The complaint alleges that Hu and his co-conspirators used two primary means of 

deception to export the pressure transducers. First, the conspirators used licenses issued to 

legitimate MKS business customers to export the pressure transducers to China, and then caused 

the parts to be delivered to other end-users who were not themselves named on the export licenses 

or authorized to receive the parts. Second, the conspirators obtained export licenses in the name 

of a front company and then used these fraudulently obtained licenses to export the parts to 

China, where they were delivered to the actual end-users. MKS is not a target of the federal 

investigation into these matters. This investigation was conducted by FBI, ICE, and BIS. 

• Aircraft Components and Other Materials to Iran – On May 15, 2012, Ulrich Davis, a former 

manager of a Netherlands-based freight forwarding company, was sentenced in the District of 

New Jersey to six months in prison after pleading guilty on Feb. 6, 2012 to conspiracy to defraud 

the United States by facilitating the illegal export of goods to Iran. Davis was first arrested on 

Aug. 6, 2011. In October 2007, the Commerce Department issued a Temporary Denial Order 

(TDO) denying export privileges to the company of a co-conspirator of Davis. The TDO 

prohibited any person, including Davis, from directly or indirectly exporting or re-exporting to or 

on behalf of the co-conspirator. The co-conspirator located in another country, purchased U.S. 

origin goods from a New Jersey firm for businesses and governmental agencies of Iran. The New 

Jersey firm was in the business of reselling chemicals, lubricants, sealants and other products 

used in the aircraft industry. As part of the conspiracy, Davis and his coconspirator directed a 

New York freight forwarding company to arrange for a trucking company to pick up commodities 

from the New Jersey company and transport them to New York on behalf of the coconspirator’s 

company. Davis admitted that in November 2007, he completed an air waybill that represented 

certain acrylic adhesives and spray paint coatings obtained from a New Jersey company were to 

be forwarded on behalf of the co-conspirator’s company to Iran after issuance of the TDO. Davis 

acknowledged that at no time was any relief, exception, or other authorization sought from the 

TDO. The investigation was conducted by BIS, ICE, and DCIS.

• Trade Secrets to Competitors in China – On May 7, 2012, an indictment returned in the District 

of Utah in April 2012 was unsealed charging two people and two companies with theft of trade 

secrets, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the alleged theft of 

trade secrets from Orbit Irrigation Products, an irrigation company headquartered in Utah. The 

defendants are Janice Kuang Capener and Luo Jun, both citizens of China, as well as Sunhills 

International LLC, a California company established by Capener; and Zhejiang Hongchen 

Irrigation Equipment Co., LTD, a Chinese company under contract with Orbit. According to 

court documents, Capener worked at Orbit from June 2003 through Nov. 1, 2009, including 
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serving chief of operations at Orbit’s manufacturing plant in Ningbo, China. Capener allegedly 

stole Orbit trade secrets relating to sales and pricing and used that information for herself and 

others to the detriment of Orbit. Capener also allegedly worked with Jun, Sunhills International 

and Zhejiang Hongchen Irrigation Equipment to devise a scheme to undermine Orbit’s position in 

the marketplace using illegally obtained proprietary pricing information. Capener and Jun were 

arrested on May 4, 2012. This case was investigated by the FBI.

• Firearms to Nigeria – On May 3, 2012, Olamide Ogunyale was sentenced in the Northern 

District of Georgia to 8 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for 

attempting to smuggle firearms to Nigeria. Ogunyale pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2012. According 

to court documents, in April 2011, Ogunyale agreed to help an individual ship 12 firearms and 

vehicles from the Port of Savannah, Ga., to Nigeria and completed export paperwork without 

declaring the hidden shipment of weapons. The case was investigated by the ATF and ICE.

• Drone, Missile and Stealth Technology to China – On April 25, 2012, an amended criminal 

complaint was unsealed in the District of New Jersey charging Hui Sheng Shen, aka “Charlie,” 

and Huan Ling Chang, aka, “Alice,” both Taiwanese nationals, with conspiracy to violate the 

Arms Export Control Act. Both had previously been arrested on Feb. 25, 2012 in New York in 

connection with a complaint in New Jersey charging them with conspiring to import and 

importing crystal methamphetamine from Taiwan to the United States. According to the 

amended complaint, during negotiations with undercover FBI agents over the meth deal, the 

defendants asked FBI undercover agents if they could obtain an E-2 Hawkeye reconnaissance 

aircraft for a customer in China. In subsequent conversations, Shen and Chang allegedly 

indicated they were also interested in stealth technology for the F-22 fighter jet, as well missile 

engine technology, and various Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), including the RQ-11b Raven, 

a small, hand-launched UAV used by the U.S. Armed Forces. Shen and Chang allegedly stated 

that their clients were connected to the Chinese government and its intelligence service. 

According to the complaint, they sent undercover agents a code book to facilitate 

communications relating to the proposed arms exports and opened a bank account in Hong Kong 

to receive and disburse funds related to the transactions. On a visit to New York in February 

2012, the defendants allegedly examined a Raven RQ-11b UAV and manuals relating to the RQ4 Global Hawk UAV (provided by undercover FBI agents) that they allegedly intended to export 

to China. Shen and Chang were arrested shortly thereafter. The export investigation was 

conducted by the FBI, while ICE was responsible for a parallel investigation into the import of 

counterfeit goods from China involving other defendants.

• Thermal Imaging Cameras to China – On April 23, 2012, Jason Jian Liang, the owner and 

operator of Sanwave International Corporation in Huntington Beach, Calif., was sentenced to 46 

months in prison and three years supervised release after pleading guilty on July 18, 2011, in the 

Central District of California to violations stemming from his illegal exports of thermal imaging 

cameras to Hong Kong and China. Lian was first indicted on June 2, 2010. An Aug. 18, 2010 

superseding indictment charged Liang with illegally exporting more thermal imaging cameras to 

China without first having obtained the required licenses. The cameras in question were 

manufactured by L-3 Communications Infrared Products and were designated by the Commerce 

Department as an export-controlled item that could not be exported to China for national security 

and regional stability reasons. Ultimately Lian admitted making seven illegal exports of 300-D 

thermal imaging cameras over a 31-month period. All told, he exported 63 cameras.

• Ballistic Vests and Ammunition to Mexico – On April 23, 2012, Hector Ayala, former owner of 

Uniforms of Texas, was arrested pursuant to an April 18, 2012 indictment in the Western District 
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of Texas charging him in connection with a scheme to smuggle ballistic vests and ammunition to 

Mexico and to launder the proceeds. According to the indictment, from Sept. 2009 to Dec. 2011, 

Ayala facilitated the smuggling of 300 high-capacity ammunition magazines and 800 ballistic 

vests with ceramic plates from the United States to Mexico and conducted financial transactions 

with proceeds from the sale of these items. This investigation was conducted by ICE and ATF.

• Ammunition to Mexico – On April 10, 2012, Eagle Pass, Tex., residents Richard Hesles, Jr. and 

Damien Hesles were arrested pursuant to an April 4, 2012 indictment in the Western District of 

Texas charging them with smuggling more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition and hundreds of 

firearms magazines to Mexico. According to the indictment, the ammunition smuggled by the 

defendants was designed for various firearms, including AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, as well 

as .50 caliber sniper rifles. The investigation was conducted by ICE and ATF.

• Ammunition and Night Vision Devices to Mexico – On April 10, 2012, Enrique Gustavo 

Gonzalez was sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 36 months in prison and two years 

supervised release after pleading guilty on Sept. 8, 2010 to arms export violations. In June 2010, 

officers with the Roma, TX, police department conducted a traffic stop of Gonzalez, where a 

search of his car revealed 7,260 rounds of ammunition, military night vision goggles, military 

night vision rifle scopes, infrared illuminators, as well as two .30-06 rifles – all of which are on 

the U.S. Munitions List. Gonzalez later admitted he was taking the materials to a ranch along the 

border, where the items would be crossed into Mexico. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Arms to Colombian Terrorists to Kill Americans – On April 5, 2012, international arms dealer 

Viktor Bout was sentenced in the Southern District of New York to 25 years in prison, five years 

of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $15 million after being convicted on Nov. 2, 2011 of 

conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals; conspiracy to kill U.S. officers and employees; conspiracy to 

acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile; and conspiracy to provide material support to the 

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated terrorist organization. Bout was 

first arrested on March 5, 2008 by Thai authorities in Bangkok, Thailand. On Nov. 17, 2010, 

after more than two years of legal proceedings in Thailand, Bout was extradited from Thailand to 

the United States to stand trial on the charges. According to court documents and evidence 

introduced at trial, between November 2007 and March 2008, Bout agreed to sell to the FARC 

millions of dollars’ worth of weapons – including 700 - 800 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), more 

than 20,000 AK-47 firearms, 10 million rounds of ammunition, five tons of C-4 plastic 

explosives, “ultralight” airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers, and unmanned aerial vehicles. 

Bout agreed to sell the weapons to two confidential sources working with the DEA (the “CSs”), 

who represented that they were acquiring them for the FARC, with the specific understanding 

that the weapons were to be used to attack U.S. helicopters in Colombia. During a covertly 

recorded meeting in Thailand in 2008, Bout stated to the CSs that he could arrange to airdrop the 

arms to the FARC in Colombia, and offered to sell two cargo planes to the FARC that could be 

used for arms deliveries. Bout said that he understood that the CSs wanted the arms to use against 

American personnel in Colombia, and advised that, “we have the same enemy,” referring to the 

United States. During the meeting, he also offered to provide people to train the FARC in the use 

of the arms. The investigation was conducted by the DEA.

• $4 Million Arms Shipment to Cote d’Ivoire – On March 26, 2012, Michael Barry Shor, of 

Alexandria, Va., was sentenced in the Northern District of California to 18 months in prison, after 

pleading guilty on Aug. 1, 2010 to one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control 

Act. In pleading guilty, Shor admitted that, beginning in July 2009 until about April 21, 2010, he 

conspired with others to illegally export 4,000 Glock 9mm handguns, 200,000 rounds of 
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ammunition, and 50,000 tear gas grenades from the United States to the Cote d’ Ivoire on behalf 

of the Cote d’ Ivoire Defense Ministry, purportedly for use in the 2010 elections in that country. 

According to court documents filed in the case, federal agents learned in 2009 that Shor, located 

in the United States, was working to broker the export of arms and ammunition to Cote d’Ivoire. 

During investigation that ensued, Shor revealed to undercover agents that he was brokering the 

deal on behalf of the Defense Minister of Cote d’ Ivoire. In April 2010, officials in Cote d’ Ivoire 

wire transferred $1.9 million from a bank in New York to an undercover bank account in San 

Jose, Calif., as a 50 percent down payment for the shipment of arms and ammunition. Shor was 

then arrested by ICE agents. After his arrest, ICE agents were provided with information on the 

identity of several individuals from the Cote d’Ivoire who were assigned to conduct an inspection 

of a sample of the weapons to be shipped from the United States. On Aug. 31, 2010, Nguessan 

Yao, a citizen of the Cote d’Ivoire and other co-conspirators were picked up from a location in 

New York City and were shown 500 9mm pistols, 1,000 tear gas grenades and 100,000 rounds of 

9mm ammunition by the agents at a location in New Jersey. A few days later, these conspirators 

arranged for another $1.9 million to be wire transferred to a government controlled bank account. 

Yao was subsequently arrested. On Sept. 22, 2010, both Shor and Yao were charged in a 

superseding indictment in the Northern District of California with one count of conspiracy to 

export arms in violation of a United Nations Security Council Arms Embargo, and in violation of 

a U.S. law and regulation; and one count of attempting to export defense articles. Yao pleaded 

guilty on Oct. 4, 2011 to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and was sentenced on 

Nov. 22, 2011 to one year and one day in prison. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Military Lasers to Canada – On March 22, 2012, Joel Stone pleaded guilty in the Western 

District of Texas to receiving stolen property, illegal export of defense articles and money 

laundering. Stone illegally exported to Canada three stolen U.S. Military Advanced Target 

Pointer Illuminating Aiming Lasers, which are defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List. Stone 

was arrested on Feb. 2, 2012 after being charged in a sealed criminal information on Jan. 12, 

2012.

• Night Vision Technology Overseas – On March 5, 2012, Sean Elias Sayegh, a retired Marine 

Corps staff sergeant who recently worked in the Marine Aviation Supply Office at Edwards Air 

Force Base in California, was arrested for allegedly lying to the government in connection with a 

scheme to illegally export military night vision technology overseas. Sayegh, who retired from 

the Marine Corps in December 2011, was charged in a March 2, 2012 indictment in the Central 

District of California with four counts of making false statements on customs declaration forms, 

stating that packages he was shipping contained camera lenses and other camera equipment, when 

the items were actually laser light interference filters (LIFs). The alleged violations, which 

occurred between December 2009 and February 2010, involved the shipment of more than 100 

LIFs. LIFs, which are used with military night vision goggles, are on the U.S. Munitions List and 

cannot legally be exported without a license issued by the Department of State. This 

investigation was conducted by ICE, NCIS, DCIS, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) 

and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

• DuPont Trade Secrets to China – On March 2, 2012, former DuPont scientist Tze Chao pleaded 

guilty in the Northern District of California to conspiracy to commit economic espionage, 

admitting that he provided trade secrets concerning DuPont’s proprietary titanium dioxide 

manufacturing process to companies he knew were controlled by the government of the People’s 

Republic of China (PRC). On Feb. 7, 2012, a grand jury in San Francisco returned a superseding 

indictment charging Chao and four other individuals, as well as five companies, with economic 

espionage and theft of trade secrets for their roles in a long-running effort to obtain U.S. trade 

secrets from DuPont for the benefit of companies controlled by the PRC. The five individuals 
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named in the indictment were Walter Liew, his wife Christina Liew, Hou Shengdong, Robert 

Maegerle, and Tze Chao. The five companies named as defendants are Pangang Group Company 

Ltd; Pangang Group Steel Vanadium Industry Company Ltd; Pangang Group Titanium Industry 

Company Ltd., Pangang Group International Economic & Trading Co; and USA Performance 

Technology, Inc. According to the superseding indictment, the PRC government identified as a 

priority the development of chloride-route titanium dioxide (TiO2) production capabilities. TiO2 

is a commercially valuable white pigment with numerous uses, including coloring paint, plastics 

and paper. To achieve that goal, companies controlled by the PRC government, specifically the 

Pangang Group companies named in the indictment, and employees of those companies 

conspired and attempted to illegally obtain TiO2 technology that had been developed over many 

years of research and development by DuPont. The Pangang Group companies were aided in 

their efforts by individuals in the United States who had obtained TiO2 trade secrets and were 

willing to sell those secrets for significant sums of money. Defendants Walter Liew, Christina 

Liew, Robert Maegerle and Tze Chao allegedly obtained and possessed TiO2 trade secrets 

belonging to DuPont. Each of these individuals allegedly sold information containing DuPont 

TiO2 trade secrets to the Pangang Group companies for the purpose of helping those companies 

develop large-scale chloride route TiO2 production capability in the PRC, including a planned 

100,000 ton TiO2 factory at Chongqing, PRC. The Liews, USAPTI, and one of its predecessor 

companies, Performance Group, entered into contracts worth in excess of $20 million to convey 

TiO2 trade secret technology to Pangang Group companies. The Liews allegedly received 

millions of dollars of proceeds from these contracts. The proceeds were wired through the United 

States, Singapore and ultimately back into several bank accounts in the PRC in the names of 

relatives of Christina Liew. The object of the defendants’ conspiracy was to convey DuPont’s 

secret chloride-route technology to the PRC companies for the purpose of building modern TiO2 

production facilities in the PRC without investing in time-consuming and expensive research and 

development. DuPont invented the chloride-route process for manufacturing TiO2 in the late1940s and since then has invested heavily in research and development to improve that 

production process. The global titanium dioxide market has been valued at roughly $12 billion, 

and DuPont has the largest share of that market. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Military Gyroscopes and Other Technology to Iran – On Feb. 29, 2012, a federal grand jury in 

the District of Columbia returned an indictment charging David Levick, an Australian national, 

and his company, ICM Components Inc., located in Thorleigh, Australia, with conspiring to 

export sensitive military and other technology from the United States to Iran, including 

components with applications in missiles, drones, torpedoes and helicopters. The indictment 

charged Levick and ICM each with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to 

violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Arms Export Control 

Act; as well as four counts of illegally exporting goods to an embargoed nation in violation of 

IEEPA; and forfeiture of at least $199,227.41. Levick and ICM allegedly solicited orders from an 

Iranian representative of a trading company in Iran. Levick and ICM then placed orders with 

U.S. companies on behalf of the Iranian representative for U.S. aircraft parts and other goods. 

Among the items they allegedly sought to procure from the United States were military-grade 

VG-34 Series Miniature Vertical Gyroscopes – which are used in applications such as helicopter 

flight systems, target drones, missiles, torpedoes and remotely piloted vehicles -- as well as 

military-grade K2000 Series Servo Actuators designed for use on aircraft. The defendants also 

sought precision pressure transducers, emergency floatation system kits -- for use on helicopters –

and shock mounted light assemblies. Levick and ICM often used a broker in Florida to place 

orders for these goods and allegedly concealed the final end-use and end-users of the goods from 

the U.S. In addition to the conspiracy allegations, the indictment charges the defendants with 

exporting to Iran four specific shipments involving shock mounted lighted assemblies, precision 
21

pressure transducers and an emergency floatation system kit. Levick remains at large. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS, FBI, DCIS and ICE.

• Defense Items to the United Arab Emirates – On Feb. 24, 2012, Andrew Silcox was sentenced to 

24 months in prison after pleading guilty on Dec. 15, 2011 in the Western District of Texas to one 

count of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Silcox was in the business of purchasing surplus 

Defense Department equipment and reselling it. According to court documents, Silcox sold a 

Naval Radar Control Unit part (also known as a Sensitivity time Control Generator Assembly) 

and attempted to sell three others to an undercover agent posing as a broker for a purchaser in the 

United Arab Emirates. The units Silcox attempted to sell are defense articles that require a State

Department license for export. Silcox was arrested in San Antonio on Oct. 21, 2011. This 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Computer-Related Technology to Iran – On Feb. 17, 2012, Jeng “Jay” Shih, was sentenced in 

the District of Columbia to 18 months in prison, while his Queens, N.Y., company, Sunrise 

Technologies and Trading Corporation, was sentenced to 24 months corporate probation for 

conspiracy to illegally export U.S.-origin computers from the United States to Iran through the 

United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both Shih and his company were also sentenced to forfeiture in 

the amount of $1.25 million, for which they are jointly liable. Shih and Sunrise pleaded guilt on 

Oct. 7, 2011. Three related defendants have also pleaded guilty in the case. On Feb. 16, 2012, 

Massoud Habibion and his Costa Mesa, Calif., company, Online Micro LLC, pleaded guilty in 

the District of Columbia to conspiracy to illegally export computers from the United States to 

Iran through the (UAE). Mohsen Motamedian, a co-owner of Online Micro, pleaded guilty to 

obstruction of justice. Under the terms of the plea and related civil settlements with BIS and 

OFAC, Habibion and his company agreed to forfeit $1.9 million, while Motamedian separately 

agreed to a $50,000 monetary penalty. On May 16, 2012, Habibion was sentenced to 13 months 

in prison, while Motamedian was sentenced to three years supervised release. On April 21, 2011, 

two separate indictments were returned in the District of Columbia charging Shih and Sunrise, as 

well as Habibion, Motamedian and Online Micro. The indictments alleged that each of the 

defendants sold millions worth of laptop computers to a company in Dubai, knowing full well 

that the computers were ultimately destined for Iran. According to court documents, Shih 

exported roughly $700,000 worth of computers per month to Iran through Dubai, while Habibion 

and Motamedian exported roughly $300,000 worth of computers per month to Iran through 

Dubai, by using fake invoices and other concealment techniques. The investigation was 

conducted by ICE, with assistance from the Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and 

Border Protection.

• Components for IEDs to Iran and Iraq – On Feb. 10, 2012, a Singapore court ruled that four 

individuals held in Singapore may be extradited to the United States to face prosecution for their 

alleged roles in conspiracies to defraud the United States, including a conspiracy that allegedly 

caused 6,000 radio frequency modules to be illegally exported from the United States to Iran via 

Singapore, at least 16 of which were later found in Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq. 

The litigation over extradition continues, after another court in Singapore in August 2012 found 

that only two of the suspects could be extradited. On Oct. 25, 2011, prosecutors in the District of 

Columbia unsealed a Sept. 15, 2010 indictment which charged these four individuals, another 

individual in Iran, and four companies with various violations, including conspiracy to defraud 

the United States, smuggling, illegal export of goods to Iran, illegal export of defense articles, 

false statements and obstruction of justice. The charged defendants are Iranian national Hossein 

Larijani, and his companies Paya Electronics Complex, based in Iran, and Opto Electronics Pte, 

Ltd., based in Singapore. Also charged was Wong Yuh Lan, an agent of Opto Electronics who 

was allegedly supervised by Larijani from Iran. The indictment also charges NEL Electronics 
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Pte. Ltd., a company in Singapore, along with NEL’s owner and director, Lim Yong Nam. 

Finally, the indictment charges Corezing International Pte. Ltd., a company in Singapore that 

maintained offices in China, as well as Lim Kow Seng, an agent of Corezing, and Hia Soo Gan 

Benson, a manager, director and agent of Corezing. On Oct. 24, 2011, authorities in Singapore 

arrested Wong, Nam, Seng and Hia pursuant to a U.S. extradition request. Larijani remains a 

fugitive in Iran. The indictment alleges that, between June 2007 and February 2008, the 

defendants fraudulently purchased and caused 6,000 modules to be illegally exported from the 

Minnesota company through Singapore, and later to Iran, in five shipments, knowing that the 

export of U.S.-origin goods to Iran was a violation of U.S. law. The defendants allegedly told the 

Minnesota firm and the U.S. government that a telecommunications project in Singapore was the 

final destination of the goods. The alleged recipient of all 6,000 modules in Iran was Larijani. 

The indictment alleges that, in May 2008, December 2008, April 2009, and July 2010, Coalition 

forces found no less than 16 of these 6,000 modules in Iraq where they were being used as part of 

the remote detonation devices of unexploded IEDs. The indictment further charges Seng, Hia, 

and Corezing with a separate fraud conspiracy involving the illegal export of two types of 

military antenna from the United States. The indictment alleges that these defendants conspired 

to defraud the United States by causing a total of 55 cavity-backed spiral antennas and biconical 

antennas to be illegally exported from a Massachusetts company to Singapore and Hong Kong 

without the required State Department license. Larijani was also charged with false statements in 

connection with his alleged business dealings with Majid Kakavand, an accused Iranian 

procurement agent who has been indicted in the United States for illegally exporting goods to 

Iran, including to military entities in Iran involved in that nation’s nuclear and ballistic missile 

programs. In coordination with the criminal actions, the Commerce Department announced the 

addition of 15 persons located in China, Hong Kong, Iran and Singapore to the Commerce 

Department's Entity List in connection with this procurement network. In coordination with the 

criminal actions by the Justice Department, the Commerce Department announced on Oct. 25, 

2011 the addition of 15 persons located in China, Hong Kong, Iran and Singapore to the 

Commerce Department's Entity List in connection with this procurement network. Among 

others, Action Global, Amaze International and OEM Hub Co., Ltd., all Hong Kong entities, 

were added to the Commerce entity list based on information indicating that they served as front 

companies and were related to the other entities named in this procurement network, including 

Corezing International. Furthermore, Luo Jie, director of Corezing International, Action Global 

and Amaze International, was added to the entity list on the basis of information indicating that 

she was specifically involved in the procurement and attempted procurement of U.S. power 

amplifiers intended for end-users in China, as well as in the diversion of various U.S.-origin 

goods through Hong Kong to Iran. Similarly, Zhou Zhenyong, director of Corezing International, 

was added to the Commerce list based on information that he was involved in the procurement of 

U.S.-origin items, including U.S.-origin munitions items destined for end-users in China and/or 

Iran. This investigation was conducted by ICE, FBI and Department of Commerce’s BIS.

• Radiation-Hardened Circuits to China – On Feb. 3, 2012, Chinese citizen and former California 

Department of Transportation (Caltrans) engineer Philip Chaohui He made his initial appearance 

in federal court in the District of Colorado after his arrest in San Francisco in connection with his 

alleged efforts to export defense articles to China without a State Department license, specifically 

more than 300 space-qualified and radiation-hardened computer circuits used in satellite 

communications with a total value of nearly $550,000. A Dec. 15, 2011 indictment charged He 

with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and to smuggle goods; 

attempted violation of AECA; and smuggling. According to the charges, He, the only employee 

of an Oakland company called Sierra Electronic Instruments, arranged for the purchase of more 

than 300 radiation-hardened circuits from Aeroflex, a Colorado manufacturer, in May 2011. He 

arranged for the purchase after a co-conspirator sent him wire transfers totaling nearly $490,000 
23

from a bank in China. He then provided false certification to Aeroflex that the items would 

remain in the United States. He received the first shipment of 112 circuits from Aeroflex in July 

2011 and later traveled from Mexico to Shanghai in September. In October 2011, he received a 

second shipment of 200 circuits from Aeroflex. He drove to the Port of Long Beach in December 

2011 and met with two men in front of a docked Chinese-flagged ship that was registered to a 

subsidiary of a China state-owned corporation. The ship had recently arrived from Shanghai and 

was scheduled to return on Dec. 15, 2011. He had allegedly concealed the 200 circuits in infant 

formula containers within boxes labeled “milk powder” in the trunk of his vehicle. He was

arrested on Dec. 11, 2011 at the Port. This investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS and 

Defense Security Service.

• Military-Grade Thermal Weapon Sight and Rifle Scopes to Eastern Europe – On Feb. 1, 2012, 

Igor Bobel, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to one count 

of smuggling and one count of attempting to illegally export defense articles. Bobel was charged 

with these violations via criminal information on Dec. 22, 2011. Bobel attempted to export a 

thermal weapon sight and two rifle scopes -- which are classified as defense articles -- to an 

Eastern European nation on May 16, 2011, without the required export license from the State 

Department. Bobel was first arrested on a sealed criminal complaint on July 1, 2011. Bobel was 

ultimately sentenced on May 11, 2012 to 30 months in prison and three years supervised release. 

This investigation was conducted by ICE. 

• Military Antennae to Hong Kong & Singapore – On Jan. 20, 2012, Rudolf L. Cheung, the head 

of research and development at a company in Massachusetts that manufactures antennae, pleaded 

guilty in the District of Columbia to one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control 

Act in connection with the illegal export of 55 military antennae from the United States to Hong 

Kong and Singapore. Cheung was charged in a criminal information on Dec. 2, 2011. According 

to court documents, Cheung’s company received a query in 2006 from a firm in Singapore 

seeking two types of military antennae. After the Singapore firm refused to fill out the necessary 

end-user forms, the export compliance officer at Cheung’s company stopped the transaction. 

Cheung then conspired with an associate at another U.S. company to bypass the export 

compliance officer at Cheung’s company by having the associate purchase the antennae from 

Cheung’s firm and then export them separately to Singapore without a State Department license. 

The conspiracy resulted in the illegal export, between July and Sept. 2007 of 55 military antennae 

from the United States to the Hong Kong and Singapore addresses of a company called Corezing 

International. Corezing, based in Singapore, has been charged in a separate indictment for its role 

in this particular antennae transaction. Corezing has also been charged for its role in a separate 

conspiracy involving the illegal export of radio frequency modules from the U.S. to Iran, some of 

which later ended up in Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq. This investigation was conducted 

by ICE, FBI and BIS

• Trade Secrets to U.S. Subsidiary of Chinese Company – On Jan. 17, 2012, Yuan Li, a former 

research chemist with the global pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, pleaded guilty in the 

District of New Jersey to stealing Sanofi’s trade secrets and making them available for sale 

through Abby Pharmatech, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese chemicals company. According 

to court documents, Li worked at Sanofi headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., from August 2006 

through June 2011, where she assisted in the development of several compounds (trade secrets) 

that Sanofi viewed as potential building blocks for future drugs. While employed at Sanofi, Li 

was a 50 percent partner in Abby, which sells and distributes pharmaceuticals. Li admitted that 

between Oct. 2008 and June 2011, she accessed internal Sanofi databases and downloaded 

information on Sanofi compounds and transferred this information to her personal home 
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computer. She also admitted that she made the stolen compounds available for sale on Abby’s 

website. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Dow Trade Secrets to China – On Jan. 12, 2012, Wen Chyu Liu, aka David W. Liou, a former 

research scientist at Dow Chemical Company in Louisiana, was sentenced in the Middle District 

of Louisiana to 60 months in prison, two years supervised release, a $25,000 fine and was ordered 

to forfeit $600,000. Liu was convicted on Feb. 7, 2011 of one count of conspiracy to commit 

trade secret theft for stealing trade secrets from Dow and selling them to companies in China, and 

he was also convicted of one count of perjury. According to the evidence presented in court, 

Liou came to the United States from China for graduate work. He began working for Dow in 

1965 and retired in 1992. Dow is a leading producer of the elastomeric polymer, chlorinated 

polyethylene (CPE). Dow’s Tyrin CPE is used in a number of applications worldwide, such as 

automotive and industrial hoses, electrical cable jackets and vinyl siding. While employed at 

Dow, Liou worked as a research scientist on various aspects of the development and manufacture 

of Dow elastomers, including Tyrin CPE. The evidence at trial established that Liou conspired 

with at least four current and former employees of Dow’s facilities in Plaquemine, Louisiana, and 

in Stade, Germany, who had worked in Tyrin CPE production, to misappropriate those trade 

secrets in an effort to develop and market CPE process design packages to Chinese companies.

Liou traveled throughout China to market the stolen information, and he paid current and former 

Dow employees for Dow’s CPE-related material and information. In one instance, Liou bribed a 

then-employee at the Plaquemine facility with $50,000 in cash to provide Dow’s process manual 

and other CPE-related information. The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Handguns to the United Kingdom – On Jan. 10, 2012, Steven Neal Greenoe was sentenced in the 

Eastern District of North Carolina to serve 10 years in prison in connection with the illegal export 

or firearms from the United States to the United Kingdom, after pleading guilty on March 2, 

2011. Greenoe was first charged by criminal complaint with Arms Export Control Act violations 

and other charges on July 26, 2010. A 50-count superseding indictment returned on Feb. 2, 2011, 

alleged that Greenoe, and at least two other individuals he recruited obtained pistol purchase 

permits, completed the necessary ATF forms and purchased firearms. Greenoe then took the 

firearms apart and concealed them in his checked luggage. On nine occasions, from Feb. 22, 

2010, to July 25, 2010, he allegedly concealed a total of 63 pistols in his checked luggage and 

traveled from Raleigh, N.C., to the United Kingdom. In total, Greenoe smuggled at least 79 

firearms to co-conspirators in the United Kingdom. According to court documents in the case, 

firearms purchased by Greenoe in the United States and illegally smuggled to the United 

Kingdom were used in a shooting in Manchester, England, in October 2010; as well as in the 

murder of Ian Langford, a father of four children, in Scotland on April 29, 2011; and in an 

attempted shooting of a cab driver near Liverpool. The investigation was conducted by ICE and 

ATF, with assistance from the Northwest Regional Organized Crime Unit from Liverpool.

• Military Accelerometers to China – On Jan. 4, 2012, Bulgarian authorities in Sofia, Bulgaria, 

arrested Bin Yang, aka “Raymond Yang,” a citizen and resident of China, pursuant to a U.S. 

provisional arrest warrant. A Dec. 7, 2011 criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of 

California charged Yang with smuggling goods from the United States and attempted illegal 

export to China of defense articles -- specifically accelerometers used in aircraft, missiles, 

“smart” munitions and in measuring explosions. According to the complaint, Yang, operating out 

of Changsha Harsay Industry Co., Ltd. in Hunan, China, posted a request for Honeywell 

accelerometers in an online business-to-business forum in August 2010. An undercover federal 

agent responded to the request and agreed to supply the requested accelerometers. After nearly a 

year of negotiations, with no deal finalized, Yang allegedly asked for Endevco 7270-200K 

accelerometers, which are used for “smart” munitions, bunker-busting bombs and measuring 
25

ground motions caused by nuclear and chemical explosions, among other things. In August and 

October 2011, Yang allegedly caused two payments totaling $4,875 to be sent to the undercover 

agent as a down payment for the accelerometers. According to the complaint, Yang subsequently 

agreed to meet with the undercover agent in Bulgaria so the undercover agent could hand deliver 

two Endevco accelerometers to him. After his arrest in Bulgaria, Yang was charged on Jan. 13, 

2012 in a five-count indictment returned in the Southern District of California. In May 2012, a 

Bulgarian court signed a final order of extradition and Yang was extradited to the United States to 

face charges against him. On May 21, 2012, Yang was arraigned in the Southern District of 

California. This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Dow and Cargill Trade Secrets to China – On Dec. 21, 2011, Kexue Huang, a Chinese national 

and former resident of Indiana, was sentenced to 87 months in and three years supervised release 

on charges of economic espionage to benefit a foreign university tied to the People’s Republic of 

China (PRC) and theft of trade secrets. On Oct. 18, 2011, Huang pleaded guilty in the Southern 

District of Indiana to these charges. In July 2010, Huang was charged in the Southern District of 

Indiana with misappropriating and transporting trade secrets to the PRC while working as a 

research scientist at Dow AgroSciences LLC. On Oct. 18, 2011, a separate indictment in the 

District of Minnesota charging Huang with stealing a trade secret from a second company, Cargill 

Inc., was unsealed. From January 2003 until February 2008, Huang was employed as a research 

scientist at Dow. In 2005, he became a research leader for Dow in strain development related to 

unique, proprietary organic insecticides marketed worldwide. Huang admitted that during his 

employment at Dow, he misappropriated several Dow trade secrets. According to plea 

documents, from 2007 to 2010, Huang transferred and delivered the stolen Dow trade secrets to 

individuals in Germany and the PRC. With the assistance of these individuals, Huang used the 

stolen materials to conduct unauthorized research to benefit foreign universities tied to the PRC. 

Huang also admitted that he pursued steps to develop and produce the misappropriated Dow trade 

secrets in the PRC. After Huang left Dow, he was hired in March 2008 by Cargill, an 

international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and 

services. Huang worked as a biotechnologist for Cargill until July 2009. Huang admitted that 

during his employment with Cargill, he stole one of the company’s trade secrets – a key 

component in the manufacture of a new food product, which he later disseminated to another 

person, specifically a student at Hunan Normal University in the PRC. According to the plea 

agreement, the aggregated loss from Huang’s conduct exceeds $7 million but is less than $20 

million. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Infrared Military Technology to South Korea – On Dec. 20, 2011, EO System Company, Ltd, 

located in Inchon, South Korea, and defendants Seok Hwan Lee, Tae Young Kim and Won Seung 

Lee, all citizens and residents of South Korea, were indicted in the Northern District of Ohio on 

five counts of illegally exporting defense articles to South Korea. According to the indictment, 

on Nov. 4, 2005, the defendants caused to be exported five infrared focal plan array detectors and 

infrared camera engines, which are classified as defense articles on the U.S. munitions list, from 

the United States to South Korea without the required State Department license. As part of the 

same investigation, on Jan. 20, 2011, Kue Sang Chun, a former longtime employee at the NASA 

Glenn Research Center in Ohio and resident of Avon Lake, Ohio, pleaded guilty in the Northern 

District of Ohio to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act and one count of filing 

false tax returns. Chun was sentenced on Nov. 10, 2011 to 14 months in prison. Chun was 

charged in a criminal information on Jan. 10, 2011. According to court documents, while working 

as an electrical engineer for NASA, Chun also operated a business out of his home through which 

he illegally exported U.S. munitions to the South Korea and performed consulting services for 

Korean businesses. Chun illegally exported several infrared focal plane array detectors and 

infrared camera engines to South Korea for use in Korean government projects between March 
26

2000 and November 2005. Chun entered into a contract with a Korean company to design, build 

and text electronics to support the items he was exporting. On occasion, Chung used his NASA 

e-mail address to order sensitive items from U.S. manufacturers, falsely asserting that they would 

be used for NASA projects in the United States, when in fact, they were to be exported to South 

Korea. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and IRS.

• Fighter Jet Engines to Iran – On Dec. 16, 2011, defendants Amparo Echeverri and Carlos 

Alfredo Pantoja-Coral were both sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 24 months in 

prison; 2 years supervised release and $100 special assessment. On Sept. 2, 2011, these two 

defendants pleaded guilty to one count apiece of conspiring with others to fraudulently attempt to 

export J-85 fighter jet engines from the United States to Iran. Their co-defendant Diego M. 

Echeverri pleaded guilty to the same charge on Aug. 3, 2011 and was later sentenced on Oct. 24, 

2011 to 24 months in prison and two years supervised release. On March 22, 2011, Pantoja-Coral, 

Amparo Echeverri, Diego Echeverri and an additional family member, Felipe Echeverry, were 

charged in an indictment with conspiring to illegally export to Iran 22 J-85 jet engines, which are 

primarily used in the F-5 fighter jet aircraft. All the defendants except Felipe Echeverry were 

arrested. According to the indictment and a March 9, 2011 criminal complaint, undercover ICE 

agents responded to an ad on the Internet that was listing the engines for sale. In subsequent 

conversations, Felipe Echeverry allegedly told undercover agents he had 22 of the engines stored 

at a warehouse in Miami and allowed undercover agents to inspect the engines as part of a 

potential sale. Undercover agents indicated that they were purchasing the engines on behalf of 

customers in Iran. Ultimately, in March 2011, several of the defendants met with the ICE 

undercover agents to sign the sales document and accept a 50 percent down payment for the 22 

engines. The defendants allegedly plotted to ship the items to Panama, knowing that they were 

ultimately bound for Iran. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS. 

• Laboratory and Radiation Detection Equipment to Iran – On Dec. 15, 2011, Majid Saboni 

pleaded guilty in the Southern District of California to a one-count information charging him with 

conspiracy to export laboratory equipment, radiation detection equipment, and radon detection 

equipment from the United States to Iran in violation of the embargo on Iran. Saboni was first 

charged in a criminal complaint on Oct. 14, 2011 and was later arrested on Oct. 24, 2011. The 

information against him was filed on Nov. 21, 2011. On May 11, 2012, Saboni was sentenced to 

12 months and one day in prison. This investigation was conducted by ICE. 

• Defense Items to the Philippines – On Dec. 13, 2011, John Dennis Tan Ong was sentenced in the 

Northern District of Georgia to 21 months in prison for conspiracy to violate the Arms Export 

Control Act in connection with the illegal export of M-4 rifle parts and accessories. On May 5, 

2011, Ong pleaded guilty to this violation. Ong was first indicted on Aug. 17, 2010 on charges of 

conspiracy to violate and attempt to violate the Arms Export Control Act. According to court 

documents, Ong agreed to ship the rifle parts to the Philippines, wired funds to undercover agents 

in connection with items, and provided undercover agents with instructions on how to ship the 

items in manner to avoid detection. The investigation was conducted by ICE

• Restricted Microwave Amplifier Technology to China – On Nov. 17, 2011, Fu-Tain Lu pleaded

guilty in the Northern District of California to selling sensitive microwave amplifiers to the 

People’s Republic of China without the required license. Lu was the owner and founder of 

Fushine Technology, Inc., corporation formerly located in Cupertino, Calif. Fushine was an 

exporter of electronic components used in communications, radar and other applications. At 

the time of the offense, Fushine had a sales representative agreement with Miteq 

Components, Inc., a New York-based manufacturer of microwave and satellite 
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communications components and subsystems. Lu admitted that, on March 1, 2004, Fushine 

submitted a purchase order to Miteq for one microwave amplifier and requested that Miteq 

notify Fushine immediately if an export license was required. Miteq responded that the part 

was controlled for export to China. Nonetheless, on April 2, 2004, Fushine exported the 

amplifier to co-defendant Everjet Science and Technology Corporation (Everjet), located in 

the PRC, without a license from the Department of Commerce. Lu further admitted that the 

amplifier he shipped was restricted for export to China for reasons of national security. Lu, 

along with the two corporate defendants, Fushine and Everjet, were first indicted on April 1, 

2009. A superseding indictment was returned on Feb. 17, 2010. In addition to the count of 

conviction, the indictment also charged him with conspiring to violate U.S. export 

regulations, and lying to federal agents who were investigating that conduct. The 

superseding indictment quoted from an internal company e-mail in which an Everjet 

employee told a Fushine employee, “Since these products are a little bit sensitive, in case 

the maker ask [sic] you where the location of the end user is, please do not mention it is in 

China.” As part of the plea agreement, Lu also agreed to forfeit 36 additional microwave 

amplifiers seized on March 24, 2010, but that were not included in the superseding 

indictment. This investigation was conducted by the Department of Commerce (BIS), the FBI, 

ICE, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

• High-Performance Coatings to Pakistani Nuclear Facility – On Nov. 15, 2011, Xun Wang, a 

former managing director of PPG Paints Trading (Shanghai) Co, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary 

of the U.S.-based PPG Industries, Inc, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to conspiracy to 

violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in connection with the export of 

specially designed, high performance epoxy coatings to the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant No. II 

(Chashma II) in Pakistan. The Chashma II plant is a nuclear reactor owned and/or operated by 

the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and is designated as an entity on the Commerce 

Department’s Entity List. Wang also reached a settlement with the Commerce Department on 

Nov. 15, 2011, in which she agreed to pay a civil penalty of $200,000, with another $50,000 

payment suspended, and to be placed on the Commerce Department’s Denied Persons List for 

five years, with an additional five years suspended. According to Wang’s plea documents, in 

January 2006, PPG Industries sought an export license for the shipments of coatings to Chashma 

II. In June 2006, the Commerce Department denied the license application. Following the

denial, Wang and her co-conspirators agreed upon a scheme to export, re-export and transship the 

high-performance epoxy coatings from the United States to Chashma II, via a third-party 

distributor in China, without first having obtained the required export license. Through these 

means, Wang and her co-conspirators exported three shipments of coatings from the United 

States to Chashma II without the required license. Wang, a Chinese national and lawful 

permanent resident of the United States, was arrested on June 16, 2011, in Atlanta. On June 7, 

2011, a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a sealed indictment against her. The 

Wang indictment is related to the December 21, 2010, guilty plea of PPG Paints Trading 

(Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Together, PPG Paints Trading and its parent company, PPG Industries, Inc., 

paid $3,750,000 in criminal and administrative fines and over $32,000 in restitution, and are 

serving five years of corporate probation. Wang, a former Managing Director of PPG Paints 

Trading, was the senior most PPG Paints Trading employee responsible for the unlawful export 

scheme. The investigation was conducted by the Commerce Department’s BIS. 

• Trade Secrets to India – On Nov. 14, 2011, Prabhu Mohapatra was arrested on a criminal 

complaint in the District of Utah (filed on Nov. 10, 2011) charging him with stealing proprietary 

information from his employer, a Utah scientific company, and providing it to a relative in India 

who was starting up a competing company. According to the charges, Mohapatra worked as a 

senior scientist for Frontier Scientific, Inc., a company that makes large pure quantities of an 
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organic chemical, 2,2’-dipyrromethane, that has several applications, including as an ingredient in 

new drugs, as well as in solar cells and batteries. The complaint alleges that Mohapatra emailed 

proprietary information from Frontier Scientific about the chemical to his brother-in-law in India, 

who was setting up an unregistered, competing company called Medchemblox. The complaint 

further alleges that Mohapatra had a financial interest in Medchemblox. This investigation was 

conducted by FBI.

• Assault Rifles to Mexico – On Nov. 8, 2011, Juan Antonio Villatoro was sentenced in the 

Southern District of Texas to 36 months in prison for obtaining more than $38,000 in one day to 

purchase firearms to be smuggled into Mexico and for recruiting various “straw purchasers” of 

firearms. His two co-defendants, Miguel Ramos-Ramos and Rafael Garza-Martinez, were each 

sentenced one the same day in the Southern District of Texas to 12 months and one day in prison 

for their roles in a conspiracy to smuggle four AR-15 assault rifles to Mexico. All three 

defendants pleaded guilty to federal charges on Aug. 15, 2010. The investigation was conducted 

by the ATF, ICE and CBP.

• Stolen U.S. Military Night Vision & Optics to China and England – On Nov. 4, 2011, Phillip 

Andro Jamison, a former Gunner’s Mate Petty Officer First Class in the U.S. Navy stationed 

aboard Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison for 

violating the Arms Export Control Act. Jamison pleaded guilty on April 28, 2011. On Sept. 9, 

2010, he was indicted for trafficking in stolen government property, interstate transportation of 

stolen goods and exporting defense articles without a license. The indictment alleged that 

Jamison, while assigned to work at his unit’s armory, stole more than 280 items from the U.S. 

Navy between October 2008 and September 2009 and then sold these items to customers via 

eBay, an Internet auction and shopping website. The indictment further alleged that Jameson 

illegally exported to Hong Kong and England combat-grade night vision devices, riflescopes and 

laser aiming devices without first obtaining the required export licenses from the State 

Department. Jamison admitted stealing the items and illegally exporting some of the technology 

to Hong Kong. The investigation was conducted by ICE and NCIS.

• Firearms to Mexico – On Nov. 3, 2011, a grand jury in the Eastern District of California returned 

an indictment charging seven individuals with federal firearms offenses relating to the trafficking 

of weapons from the United States to Mexico. The indictment charges Ernesto SalgadoGuzman; Demetrio Sebastian Cortez-Ordaz; Zeferina Salgado de Cortez; Demtrio Cortez-Ordaz, 

Modesto Santiago-Sanchez, Victorino Epifanio Bazante Pacheco, and Florencio Solanes-Morales, 

who were arrested on Nov. 9, 2011. In a related action Gregorio Salgado-Lopez was arrested in 

California on a Mexican provisional arrest warrant, for potential extradition to Mexico to face 

Mexican gun smuggling charges. According to the charges, between 2006 and June 2009, the 

defendants allegedly purchased more than 400 .22 caliber rifles at a store in Madera, Calif., to be 

sold in Mexico. Demetrio Cortez-Ordaz was also charged with exporting firearms to Mexico in 

violation of the Arms Export Control Act. This investigation was conducted by ATF, ICE and 

Mexican law enforcement agencies.

• Exports of Hazardous Materials to Saudi Arabia – On Nov. 2, 2011, in the Northern District of 

California, a grand jury returned an indictment charging MEDCHEM Corporation and its owner 

Hasan Ibrahim with: two counts of attempted placement of destructive substance on an aircraft, 

one count of transportation of hazardous materials without shipping papers, nine counts of 

transportation of hazardous materials without labels, one count of failure to file export 

information, one count of attempted smuggling of goods, and one count of attempted smuggling 

of goods. The charges in the indictment stem from MEDCHEM, located in South San Francisco, 
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exporting chemicals (including hazardous materials), medical equipment, and diagnostics to 

Constant Trading Activity (“CTA”), a business in Saudi Arabia. Ibrahim was the owner and 

president of MEDCHEM, until one of his sons became involved in MEDCHEM prior to June 

2010. Ibrahim was MEDCHEM’s sole employee. Ibrahim was also a founder of CTA and 

served as CTA’s vice president. According to the indictment, Ibrahim caused a shipment 

consisting of five pallets containing sixty-four boxes to be delivered to a freight forwarder for 

export to Saudi Arabia. None of the boxes were labeled as containing hazardous material. The 

shipment contained over 25 separate chemicals designated as hazardous materials under the 

Hazardous Materials Regulations. Two of the hazardous materials – Sulfuryl Chloride (classified 

as a corrosive) and Chloroacetonitrile (classified as poisonous material, with a subsidiary hazard 

that it is a flammable and combustible liquid) – were poisonous by inhalation and prohibited 

under federal law from transportation on any aircraft. The investigation was conducted by the 

FBI, Department of Commerce, IRS and Federal Aviation Administration.

• Radiation-Hardened Defense and Aerospace Technology to China –On Oct. 27, 2011, Lian 

Yang, a resident of Woodinville, Washington, was sentenced in the Western District of 

Washington to 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. On March 24, 2011, Yang pleaded guilty 

to conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act by trying to sell radiation hardened military 

and aerospace technology to China. Yang was arrested on Dec. 3, 2010, pursuant to a criminal 

complaint filed charging him with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act. According 

to the complaint, Yang attempted to purchase and export from the United States to China 300 

radiation-hardened, programmable semiconductor devices that are used in satellites and are also 

classified as defense articles under the U.S. Munitions List. The complaint alleges that Yang 

contemplated creating a shell company in the United States that would appear to be purchasing 

the parts, concealing the fact that the parts were to be shipped to China. Yang allegedly planned 

that false purchasing orders would be created indicating that parts that could be legally exported 

were being purchased, not restricted parts. Yang and his co-conspirators allegedly wiretransferred $60,000 to undercover agents as partial payment for a sample of five devices. As part 

of the conspiracy, Yang allegedly negotiated a payment schedule with the undercover agents for 

the purchase and delivery of the remaining 300 devices in exchange for a total of $620,000. This 

investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE and CBP.

• Military Night Vision Scopes to Russia – On Oct. 24, 2011, Anna Fermanova was sentenced in 

the Eastern District of New York to four months in prison, three years supervised release and a 

$1,000 fine. Fermanova pleaded guilty on Jan. 14, 2011 to one count of violating the Arms 

Export Control Act. In March 2010, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched 

Fermanova's checked luggage in New York as she was preparing to board a flight to Moscow and 

identified three night vision items they suspected of being export controlled. ICE agents detained 

the items and permitted Fermanova to board her flight to Moscow. ICE agents later determined 

that the items consisted of a Raptor night vision weapon sight and two advanced rifle sights, 

which are designated as defense articles. On July 15, 2010, Fermanova was arrested (pursuant to 

a July 9, 2010 complaint) at JFK upon her return from Russia and she was charged with 

attempting to export the military night vision scopes. This investigation was conducted by ICE. 

• Radiation-Hardened Aerospace Technology to China – On Sept. 30, 2011, defendants Hong 

Wei Xian, aka “Harry Zan,” and Li Li, aka “Lea Li,” were sentenced in the Eastern District of 

Virginia to 24 months in prison for conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and 

conspiracy to smuggle goods unlawfully from the United States, in connection with their efforts 

to export to China radiation-hardened microchips that are used in satellite systems and are 

classified as defense articles. Both defendants pleaded guilty to the charges on June 1, 2011. The
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defendants were arrested on Sept. 1, 2010 in Budapest by Hungarian authorities pursuant to a 

U.S. provisional arrest warrant. On April 4, 2011, they made their initial court appearances in 

federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia after being extradited from Hungary. According 

to court documents, Zan and Li operated a company in China called Beijing Starcreates Space 

Science and Technology Development Company Limited. This firm was allegedly in the 

business of selling technology to China Aerospace and Technology Corporation, a Chinese 

government-controlled entity involved in the production and design of missile systems and launch 

vehicles. According to court documents, from April 2009 to Sept. 1, 2010, the defendants 

contacted a Virginia company seeking to purchase and export thousands of Programmable ReadOnly Microchips (PROMs). The defendants ultimately attempted to purchase 40 PROMs from 

the Virginia firm and indicated to undercover agents that the PROMs were intended for China 

Aerospace and Technology Corporation. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Military Flight Simulation Technology to Iran – On Sept. 26, 2011, Chan Hok Shek was 

sentenced in the District of Massachusetts to 3 1⁄2 years in prison for conspiring to obtain 

components for C-130 military flight simulators from the United States for delivery to Iran. On 

March 25, 2010, an indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Shek and two Malaysian 

nationals, Wong Fook Loy and Ngo Tek Chai, with conspiring to and attempting to illegally 

export munitions without the required licenses. According to the October 2008 indictment, Shek, 

a Hong Kong citizen, conspired with Loy and Chai, and others to cause the export of 10 

indicators servo tachometers used in C-130 military flight simulators from the United States for 

use in Iran. Shek was extradited from Hong Kong to face the charges against him in Boston. The 

case was investigated by ICE, BIS, and DCIS.

• Outsourced Manufacture of Military Items to China – On Sept. 13, 2011, Staff Gasket 

Manufacturing Corporation, a defense contracting company in New Jersey, was sentenced in the 

District of New Jersey to five years probation and ordered to pay $751,091 in restitution and an 

$800 special assessment. Eric Helf, Staff Gasket’s president was sentenced to three years 

probation, a $500 fine and a final order of forfeiture was entered for $49,926. On April 19, 2011, 

Staff Gasket pleaded guilty to Arms Export Control Act and wire fraud violations, while Helf 

pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. From Aug. 2004 to March 2006, Staff Gasket entered 

into contracts with the Department of Defense to provide replacement parts for use in military 

operations. Many of the parts to be supplied were critical application items and were thus 

required to be manufactured in the United States. Nonetheless, Staff Gasket contracted with 

foreign manufacturers, including in China, and many of the parts ultimately supplied to the 

Defense Department, including lock pins for helicopters, were made overseas, substandard, and 

failed in the field. As a result, Staff Gasket caused the Defense Department to sustain losses of 

some $751,091 in connection with the fraudulent contracts. This investigation was conducted by 

DCIS and ICE.

• F-5 Fighter Jet and Other Military Items to Iran – On Sept. 12, 2011, Marc Knapp, of Simi 

Valley, California, was sentenced in the District of Delaware to 46 months in prison for plotting 

to illegally export fighter jet components and other materials to Iran. Knapp pleaded guilty on 

Jan. 13, 2011, to a two-count information charging him with violating the Arms Export Control 

Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The information, filed on Nov. 22, 

2010, charged that Knapp engaged in a seven-month course of criminal conduct involving illegal 

exports to Hungary and attempted exports to Iran during negotiations with undercover agents 

posing as Iranian purchasers. Among other things, Knapp attempted to export a complete F-5 

Tiger II fighter jet, as well as F-14 flight ejection seats, anti-gravity flight suits, search and rescue 

beacons and emergency manuals for U.S. fighter jets. On two occasions, Knapp illegally exported 
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items, including anti-gravity flight suits, to Hungary believing they were destined for Iran. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• U.S. Technology to Pakistani Nuclear Facilities – On Sept. 9, 2011, Nadeem Akhtar, a Pakistan 

citizen and U.S. lawful permanent resident, pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland to 

conspiring to commit export violations and to defraud the United States in connection with a 

scheme to illegally export nuclear-related materials to Pakistan. Akhtar, who owned a company 

called Computer Communication USA (CC-USA), was originally indicted on March 11, 2010. 

According to his plea agreement, from October 2005 through March 11, 2010, Akhtar and his 

conspirators used CC-USA to obtain or attempt to obtain radiation detection devices; resins for 

coolant water purification; calibration and switching equipment; attenuators; and surface 

refinishing abrasives for export to several restricted nuclear entities in Pakistan. Other items that 

Akhtar unlawfully procured or exported, or attempted to procure or export, to restricted entities in 

Pakistan include mechanical and electrical valves, cranes and scissor lifts. The total value of all of 

these items exceeded $400,000. The restricted entities in Pakistan included: Pakistan’s Space 

and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission; and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission 

(PAEC) and its subordinate entities, such as the Chasma Nuclear Power Plant I in Kundian, 

Pakistan, and the research reactor maintained by the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and 

Applied Sciences, a constituent institution of the PAEC in Nilare, Pakistan, specializing in 

nuclear-related research and development. Akhtar attempted to evade export regulations and 

licensing requirements by: undervaluing and falsely describing the items being exported; failing 

to reveal the true end-user by using third parties and/or real and fake business entities/locations in 

Pakistan, Dubai and the United States; using individuals in Illinois and California to procure 

items for him under false pretenses; shipping items to his residences in Maryland so it would 

appear as though his company was the actual purchaser/end-user of the items; and transshipping 

the items from the U.S. through the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Akhtar took direction from the 

owner of a trading company located in Karachi, Pakistan, who had business relationships with 

governmental entities in Pakistan. This individual would obtain orders for nuclear-related and 

other commodities from Pakistani government entities identified above, and then direct Akhtar as 

to what commodities to purchase in the United States for export to Pakistan. Akhtar would then 

negotiate prices with manufacturers and suppliers of commodities sought in the U.S. and arrange 

for shipment of the commodities. Akhtar’s co-conspirators included individuals in Pakistan, 

Dubai, UAE and New York associated with the owner of the Pakistani trading company. The 

owner usually paid Akhtar a commission of five to seven and a half percent of the cost of each 

item Akhtar obtained for export from the U.S. Akhtar was ultimately sentenced on Jan. 6, 2012 

to 37 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. This investigation was 

conducted by BIS and FBI.

• Assault Rifles to Mexico -- On Aug. 30, 2011, Daniel Bustamante, of Laredo, Texas, was 

sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 90 months in prison for attempting to smuggle 16 

firearms, including AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, to Mexico in violation of the Arms Export 

Control Act. Bustamante has been in custody since his January 2011 arrest. Bustamante pleaded 

guilty to attempting to export a firearm from the United States into Mexico on June 15, 2011. The 

investigation was conducted by the ATF

• Trade Secrets to Foreign Government – On Aug. 30, 2011, Elliot Doxer, of Brookline, Mass., 

pleaded guilty in the District of Massachusetts to one count of foreign economic espionage for 

providing trade secrets over an 18-month period to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli 

intelligence officer. Neither the government of Israel nor anyone acting on its behalf committed 

any offense under U.S. laws in this case. Doxer was a former employee of Akamai Technologies, 

Inc., who in June 2006 sent an e-mail to the Israeli consulate in Boston stating that he worked in 
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Akamai’s finance department and was willing to provide information that might help Israel. In 

Sept. 2007, an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer spoke to Doxer and 

established a “dead drop” where the agent and Doxer could exchange information. From Sept. 

2007 through March 2009, Doxer visited the dead drop at least 62 times to leave information, 

retrieve communications or check for new communications. Doxer provided the undercover agent 

with Akamai customer lists, employee lists, contract information and other trade secrets. He was 

arrested on Oct. 6, 2010 on a complaint charging him with wire fraud. That charge was dismissed 

as part of the plea agreement. Doxer was ultimately sentenced on Dec. 19, 2011 to six months in 

prison and two years supervised release. The case was investigated by the FBI.

• Assault Rifles to Mexico – On Aug. 26, 2011, Christian Romero was sentenced in the District of 

Nevada to three years in prison and three years of supervised release for his guilty plea to two 

counts of illegal acquisition of a firearm. Romero, his brother, Marcos Romero, their father, Abel 

Romero, all Mexican nationals who were residing in Las Vegas unlawfully, and a fourth man, 

Arnold Gutierrez, of Las Vegas, were charged in August 2010 with illegally obtaining assault 

rifles from federally licensed firearms dealers in Las Vegas. A number of the assault rifles were 

recovered in the summer of 2010 at a compound in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which was used by a 

criminal organization involved in narcotics trafficking. Marcos and Abel Romero, and Gutierrez, 

also pleaded guilty to illegally acquiring firearms and were sentenced in July to 40 months, 46 

months, and 15 months in prison, respectively. The case was investigated by ATF.

• Military Night Vision Overseas -- On Aug. 24, 2011, in the District of Maryland, Connor 

Kraegel was sentenced to 8 months imprisonment and three years supervised release. On July 8, 

2011, Kraegel plead guilty to one count of unlawful export of a defense article. According to 

documents filed in the case, Kraegel sold and exported a set of Aviator's Night Vision Imaging 

System (AN/AVS-6) goggles to a conspirator located outside the United States without first 

having obtained a license from the U.S. Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade 

Controls. This case was investigated by ICE.

• Fighter Jet Parts to Singapore – On August 22, 2011, Russell Marshall were sentenced in the 

Southern District of Florida to three years probation, while his Boynton Beach, Fla., company, 

Universal Industries Limited, Inc., was sentenced to one year probation and a $1,000 fine in 

connection with an effort to illegally export J-85 engine blades for F-5 fighter jets to Singapore. 

Both defendants pleaded guilty on June 3, 2011. On April 21, 2011, a criminal information was 

filed charging Marshall and Universal Industries Limited, Inc., with making false statements and 

violating the Arms Export Control Act. According to court documents, Marshall illegally 

attempted to export 200 J-85 engine blades for F-5 fighter jets to Singapore. Marshall allegedly 

failed to obtain the required State Department license for such exports and recorded the value of 

the parts as $2,000 in invoices, when in fact the shipment of military parts was valued at more 

than $105,000. This investigation was conducted by ICE. 

• Thermal Imaging Scopes and Cameras to Belarus – On Aug. 10, 2011, an indictment was 

returned in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania charging Yahor Osin, Aliaksandr Belski, 

Aliaksandr Stashynski, Volha Dubouskaya, Vitali Tsishuk and Ernest Chornoletskyy with 

conspiracy to export defense articles without a license and conspiracy to violate the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act. Osin, Belski and Tsishuk were further charged with 

conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. According to the indictment, from Jan. 2008, to 

early August 2011, the defendants conspired to illegally export to Belarus numerous defense 

articles, including ThOR 2 Thermal Imaging Scopes, AN/PAS-23 Mini Thermal Monoculars, and 

Thermal-Eye Renegade-320s without obtaining a license from the State Department. During this 
33

period, the defendants also allegedly conspired to illegal export Commerce-controlled items to 

Belarus, including L-3 x 200xp Handheld Thermal Imaging Cameras without a Commerce 

Department license. Tsishuk pleaded guilty on Oct. 28, 2011, while Osin and Chornoletskyy 

pleaded guilty on Feb. 29, 2012.

• Automatic Rifles and Plastic Explosives to the FARC – On Aug. 5, 2011, Hector Antonio 

Guillen-Martinez of El Salvador, was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to 31 years in 

prison after pleading guilty on May 11, 2011 to one count of attempting to provide material 

support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated terrorist 

organization, and one count of carrying an explosive during a commission of a crime. On Feb. 

24, 2011, Guillen-Martinez was indicted on charges of attempting to provide material support to 

the FARC, carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony, transferring explosive 

materials knowing that they will be used to commit a crime of violence, carrying a destructive 

device in relation to a crime of violence, and a drug violation. Guillen-Martinez sold several 

automatic rifles, more than 20 pounds of plastic explosives, and other explosives to an individual 

whom he believed to be a member of the FARC. Guillen-Martinez believed that these weapons 

and explosives were to be used by the FARC in Colombia to eradicate Americans from 

Colombia, dead or alive. Guillen-Martinez was apprehended in the Eastern District of Virginia 

when he traveled to the District in order to transfer a load of 20 kilograms of cocaine to New 

York City on behalf of the FARC. This case was investigated by the DEA.

• Holographic Weapons Sights and Firearms Parts to China and Japan – On Aug. 3, 2011, 

Andrew Vincent O’Donnell, of Georgia, was sentenced in the Northern District of Georgia to 37 

months in prison and three years supervised release for conspiracy to violate and violating the 

Arms Export Control Act and possessing short barrel rifles. O’Donnell operated an eBay online 

store called “LRA Tactical Gear” through which he sold various weapons parts and accessories, 

including military holographic weapons sights and gun parts. O’Donnell sold more than 50 

export-controlled military holographic weapons sights to a customer in Hong Kong without the 

required export license, falsely labeling the shipments as toys. He also sold gun parts used to 

assemble an AR15 / M16 / M4 rifle to a customer in Japan after routing the parts through a third 

country to conceal the illegal nature of the exports. This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Ammunition to Mexico – On Aug. 3, 2011, federal prosecutors in the Western District of Texas 

announced the arrest of Bryan Nelson Schonberg, manager of Geneva Loan and Jewelry Co., 

Jaime Rangel, Guadalupe Gallegos, Cirilio Soriano, Elataria Pedroza and Raquel Galvan. All the 

defendants, with the exception of Pedroza, were charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle 

ammunition from the United States; one aiding and abetting ammunition smuggling count; one 

count of conspiracy to smuggle high capacity firearms magazines; one aiding and abetting high 

capacity firearms magazine smuggling count; and, and one count of conspiracy to commit money 

laundering. Pedroza is charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle ammunition from the 

United States and one aiding and abetting ammunition smuggling count. According to the 

indictment, the scheme involved the sale of large quantities of ammunition and large capacity 

ammunition magazines to undercover agents. Furthermore, the defendants, knowing that the 

goods would be smuggled into Mexico, allegedly repackaged the ammunition from its original 

factory rigid cardboard boxes into taped bundles or plastic bags to make it easier to conceal from 

authorities. During this investigation, authorities have seized approximately 34,500 rounds of 

assault caliber ammunition and more than 180 large capacity magazines for AK-47 and AR-15 

type firearms. The case was investigated by ICE.
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• Ammunition to Mexico – On Aug. 3, 2011, Cristhian Gallegos-Arizmendi was sentenced in the 

District of Arizona to 10 months in prison and 3 years supervised release after pleading guilty on 

May 2, 2011 in connection with the attempted export of ammunition to Mexico. Co-defendant 

Alejandro Ruiz Escalante was sentenced on June 17, 2011 to 12 months in prison and 3 years 

supervised release, after pleading guilty on May 31, 2011. Another co-defendant, Jesus 

Francisco Lopez, was convicted on April 21, 2011 in the District of Arizona of attempted 

unlawful export of ammunition and sentenced to 63 months in prison on July 20, 2011. In 

December 2010, Lopez helped Gallegos-Arizmendi and Ruiz Escalante load 9,000 rounds of 

ammunition into a van from his home in Tucson. Gallegos-Arizmendi and Ruiz Escalante were 

later arrested as they drove the ammunition to Mexico. A subsequent search of Lopez’ house 

revealed more than 19,000 rounds of ammunition which was to be picked up and taken to Mexico 

the following day. This investigation was conducted by ICE, ATF, CBP and the Arizona 

Department of Public Safety.

• Export / Import of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle – On July 28, 2011 in the Middle District of 

Florida, Henson Chua, a citizen of the Philippines, pleaded guilty to one count of causing the 

temporary import of a defense article, specifically, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), without 

authorization, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. He was sentenced on Nov. 8, 2011 to 

time served. Hua was first charged on Feb. 10, 2011, by criminal complaint with illegally 

conspiring to temporarily import into the U.S. and then to export a defense article. According to 

court documents, ICE agents were contacted by the U.S. military in May 2010 about a “Raven” 

UAV that was posted for sale on eBay.com. The Raven is a U.S.-made UAV manufactured by 

AeroVironment Inc. for the U.S. Army. Chua was attempting to sell the UAV for $13,000 on 

eBay. Undercover ICE agents posing as buyers were able to identify the UAV and confirm that it 

was U.S. government property. Agents purchased the nose cone for the UAV from Chua and 

then later arrested Chua on Feb. 10, 2011 after he arrived at the Los Angeles airport. He was later 

indicted on March 10, 2011, on charges of smuggling and Arms Export Control Act violations. 

The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Assault Rifles to Mexico – On July 27, 2011, eight members of a ring convicted of lying to buy 

firearms bound for Mexico were sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to prison terms 

ranging from 30 to 60 months. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Juan Manuel 

Barrientos-Lopez, 29, an undocumented alien from Mexico; Andres Alvarez, 24, of Alamo, 

Texas; Armando Bravo II, aka Peanut, 22, Romulo Longoria, 21, Greg Palacios, 19, and Ruben 

Ramirez III, 20, all of San Juan, Texas; as well as Alan Ramirez, 20, and Michael Anthony 

Salazar, 20, both of McAllen, to varying prison terms for their roles in a straw purchasing scheme 

to acquire firearms bound for Mexico. All eight men pleaded guilty on various dates in March 

and April 2011 to lying on the ATF Form 4473 when they falsely represented themselves to be 

the “actual owner” of varying types of semi-automatic weapons they were buying for another 

earlier this year. Judge Crane held Barrientos-Lopez, as the organization’s head, responsible for 

the purchase of a total of 38 AK-47 and AR-15 type rifles purchased by the ring and sentenced 

him to 60 months in federal prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law. Alvarez was 

sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, while Bravo received 60 months. Longoria, Palacios, Alan 

Ramirez and Salazar were each sentenced to 30 months while Ruben Ramirez was sentenced to 

33 months. This investigation was conducted by the ATF.

• Ammunition to Mexico – On July 13, 2011, Rene Huerta Jr., was sentenced in the Southern 

District of Texas to more than 11 years in prison (136 months) for being a felon in possession of 

ammunition and attempting to export ammunition to Mexico. On Nov. 24, 2010, Huerta was 

stopped by U.S. border officials as he was traveling from the United States to Matamoros, 
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Mexico with more than 6,000 rounds of 7.62 x 39 mm ammunition in a dashboard compartment 

in his vehicle. This caliber ammunition is used in assault rifles. Huerta was convicted on April 

13, 2011. The investigation was conducted by ICE and CBP.

• Machine Gun Specifications and Components to China – On July 12, 2011, Swiss Technology 

(Swiss Tech), Inc., a company in Clifton, N.J. that makes equipment for the U.S. military, 

pleaded guilty in the District of New Jersey to a one count criminal information charging the firm 

with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act from August 2004 to about July 2009. 

On Nov. 15, 2011, Swiss Tech was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay

restitution in the amount of $1.1 million to the Defense Department in connection with fraudulent 

contracts. Swiss Tech was under contract with the Department of Defense to manufacture 

components for the M249 machine gun. In order to lower its manufacturing costs, Swiss Tech 

sent defense articles, including specification drawings and parts samples, to a company in the 

People’s Republic of China so that the Chinese company could make these machine gun 

components for Swiss Tech. Swiss Tech did not have the required State Department license for 

exports of these munitions to China. After receiving the components from the Chinese company, 

Swiss Tech then shipped the defense articles and other parts to the Department of Defense, 

purporting that the defense articles were made by Swiss Tech in conformance with its contract. 

Among other things, Swiss Tech illegally exported to China specifications for the production of 

M249 machine gun parts, as well as components for the M249 machine gun, and M16 or M4 

rifle. This investigation was conducted by DCIS and ICE.

• Firearms to Nigeria – On July 11, 2011, Boniface Ibe was sentenced in the District of Maryland 

to five months in prison followed by 10 months of supervised release for illegally exporting 

shotguns, a handgun and ammunition to Nigeria without a license, and for delivering a firearm to 

a common carrier without notice. Ibe attempted to export these items to Nigeria concealed in a 

vehicle that was in a shipping container. The container and weapons were intercepted at the Port 

of Baltimore on Sept. 22, 2010. The investigation was conducted by ICE, CBP, and ATF.

• Vacuum Pumps With Potential Sensitive Applications to Iran -- On July 6, 2011, in the Central 

District of California, Jirair Avanessian, of Glendale, California, was sentenced to serve 18 

months in prison in connection with his role in a conspiracy to violate International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act and the Iranian trade embargo, including smuggling, money laundering 

and other crimes. Avanessian also must pay a $10,000 fine and forfeit the proceeds of his 

criminal activity. Avanessian was indicted on Dec. 30, 2009 and arrested in January 2010. He

pled guilty in July 2010. Another individual involved in the conspiracy, Amirhossein Sairafi, of 

Iran, was arrested in January 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany by German law enforcement authorities 

based on a provisional arrest warrant from the United States. Sairafi was later extradited to the 

United States in September 2010, pled guilty on Nov. 30, 2010, and was sentenced to 41 months 

in March of this year in connection with the scheme. Sairafi was first charged in a Jan. 4, 2010 

criminal complaint. Avanessian, who was born in Iran, is the owner and operator of XVAC, a 

company located in California. Avanessian corresponded with Sairafi and another individual in 

Iran, Farhad Masoumian, via e-mail over several years to arrange the export of high-dollar 

vacuum pumps and pump-related equipment to Iran through a free trade zone located in the 

United Arab Emirates. The vacuum pumps and related equipment at issue have a number of 

applications, including in the enrichment of uranium. Avanessian purchased and arranged to ship 

the goods ordered by Masoumian to the United Arab Emirates, making it appear that the U.A.E. 

was the ultimate destination. Sairafi would then send the same goods from the location in the 

U.A.E. to Iran. As part of the conspiracy, Masoumian, Avanessian and Sairafi re-labeled and 

undervalued the contents of the shipments in order to mask the true contents and to avoid 

interception by U.S. officials. In most cases, Avanessian prepared air waybills indicating his 
36

shipments contained "spare parts" and that no shipper's export declaration was needed. Between 

December 2007 and November 2008, there were at least seven shipments containing vacuum 

pump equipment purchased and exported by Avanessian at Masoumian’s request. The 

investigation continues as Masoumian remains at large and is believed to be in Iran. This case 

was the product of an investigation by the Export and Anti-proliferation Global Law Enforcement 

(EAGLE) Task Force in the Central District of California, which includes the FBI, ICE, BIS, 

CBP, Diplomatic Security Service and the Transportation Security Administration. 

• Firearms to Mexico – On July 1, 2011, Avaro Hernan Ramirez was sentenced to 41 months in 

prison, followed by three years supervised release, for conspiracy to possess a machine gun and 

making a false statement in a passport application. On May 17, 2011, Aurelio Vargas, Jr. was 

sentenced in the Northern District of Georgia to 8 years in prison followed by 3 years of 

supervised release for conspiracy to possess a machine gun and other violations. Ramirez and 

Vargas were allegedly attempting to purchase seven to ten firearms, including a machine gun, to 

transport to Mexico. Both were arrested on Aug. 18, 2010, after they purchased six guns, 

including a machine gun, from an undercover agent. Vargas pleaded guilty on Dec. 10, 2010. 

The case was investigated by ATF and ICE.

• Military Aircraft Components to Iran – On June 23, 2011, federal prosecutors in the Middle 

District of Georgia announced charges against 12 defendants (seven individuals and five 

corporate entities) based in the U.S., France, the United Arab Emirates and Iran for their alleged 

roles in a conspiracy to illegally export military components for F-4 and F-5 fighter jets and AH-1 

and UH-1 Huey attack helicopters from the United States to Iran. Prosecutors unsealed a June 

16, 2011 superseding indictment charging the eight foreign defendants with conspiring to violate 

and violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers 

Act, as well as conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering and false statement 

violations. Charges against four other defendants, who are based in the United States and have 

pleaded guilty in the case, were contained in the original indictment filed in 2010. The U.S.-

based defendants are The Parts Guys LLC, and its president, Michael Edward Todd, as well as 

Galaxy Aviation Services and its president, Hamid Seifi, also known as Hank Seifi. Todd and his 

company pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the AECA on May 9, 2011. Todd was later 

sentenced on Oct. 26, 2011 to 46 months in prison, a $10,000 fine and ordered to forfeit 

$160,362. Seifi and his company pleaded guilty on Feb. 24, 2011, to conspiracy to violate the 

AECA and violating the IEEPA. On June 22, 2011, Seifi was sentenced to 56 months in prison 

followed by three years of supervised release, a fine of $12,500 and forfeiture of $153,950, while 

Galaxy Aviation, which is now defunct, received a $400 special assessment. Three defendants 

based in France have also been indicted as part of the investigation. They are Aerotechnic, a 

company in Pinsaguel, France, and its president, Philippe Sanchez, as well as Luc Teuly, the sales 

manager of Aerotechnic. Each of these defendants remains a fugitive. Two defendants based in 

the U.A.E. have also been indicted in the case. They are Aletra General Trading, a company in 

Dubai doing business as “Erman & Sultan Trading Co,” and Syed Amir Ahmed Najfi, a

purchaser for Aletra. Najfi remains a fugitive. Three defendants based in Iran have also been 

charged in the case. They are Sabanican Company, a company in Tehran, and its president, 

Hassan Seifi as well as Reza Seifi, the managing director of Sabanican Company. Each of these 

defendants remains at large. As part of the U.S. government’s coordinated action against this 

procurement network, the Commerce Department announced on June 23, 2011 that it would add 

the eight defendants in France, Iran and the U.A.E. to its “Entity List.” The investigation was 

conducted by ICE, FBI, and BIS.

• Centrifuge and Dual-Use Scientific Technology to Iran – On June 3, 2011, Mohammad Reza 

Vaghari was sentenced in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to 33 months in prison for his 
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participation in illegal business transactions with Iran between 2002 and 2005 involving scientific 

research equipment and computer software. Vaghari was convicted on Feb. 24, 2011 of one 

count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); two 

substantive counts of violating IEEPA; and one count of naturalization fraud stemming from his 

attempt to procure U.S. citizenship. Vaghari’s co-conspirator, Mir Hossein Ghaemi, pleaded 

guilty on November 30, 2010. Vaghari operated in the U.S. through a Pennsylvania corporation 

called Saamen Company, purchasing items from American companies and illegally exporting 

them to Iran through the United Arab Emirates. Among the items Vaghari caused to be delivered 

or attempted to deliver to Iran were a centrifuge, computers, fuel cell systems, ultrasonic liquid 

processors, ultrasound machines, and other laboratory equipment. Among the recipients of some 

of these goods was the Pasteur Institute of Iran, which has been listed as an entity of concern for 

biological and chemical weapons development by several foreign governments. Agents 

unraveled Vaghari’s efforts in 2005 after receiving a complaint from a vendor at BeckmanCoulter, a nationwide manufacturer of medical equipment, asserting that Vaghari was attempting 

to purchase a $100,000 centrifuge from the company, which weighed some 1,000 pounds, for 

delivery to his apartment and that Vaghari was seeking to pay in cash and did not request a 

warranty or installation. The investigation was conducted by FBI, BIS, and ICE.

• Machine Guns and Grenades to Mexico -- On May 26, 2011, Guadalupe Salazar-Tovar was 

sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 46 months in prison for attempting to smuggle 20 

grenades and 8 fully-automatic machine guns in to Mexico in violation of the Arms Export 

Control Act. Salazar-Tovar was arrested along with Eliu Rivera-Mendez on Dec. 7, 2010 after 

they attempted to purchase these items from undercover ATF agents for individuals in Mexico. 

Rivera-Mendez has also pleaded guilty. The investigation was conducted by ATF and ICE.

• U.S. Aircraft Components to Iran – On May 17, 2011, a grand jury in the Southern District of 

California returned a superseding indictment charging Belgian citizens Willy A.E. De Greef and 

Frederic Depelchin, as well as their Belgium-based companies, Meca Airways LTD and Meca 

Overseas Airways LTD, with 15 felony counts arising from the smuggling of helicopter and 

fixed-wing aircraft components from the United States to Iran. De Greef was also charged with 

two counts of making false statements to the U.S. government concerning the smuggling ring. 

DeGreef was arrested in the United Kingdom pursuant to a March 18, 2011 prior indictment in 

the Southern District of California charging he and his co-defendants with fraudulently procuring

millions of dollars worth of helicopter and airplane components from U.S. suppliers by indicating 

to the suppliers that the destination of the parts was Belgium or another non-prohibited location. 

After the parts were exported from the United States to Belgium, De Greef and Depelchin 

allegedly promptly transshipped them to Iran, typically via France, the indictment alleges. This 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Military Technical Data to South Korea – On May 16, 2011, Young Su Kim, a former Vice 

President at Rocky Mountain Instrument Company (RMI), based in Colorado, pleaded guilty in 

the District of Colorado to violating the Arms Export Control Act. Kim was first charged on 

April 21, 2011. Kim caused the illegal export to South Korea of technical data related to prisms 

that are useful in guidance or targeting systems in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, AC-130 gunships, 

tanks and missile systems. On Aug. 17, 2011, Kim was sentenced to five years probation and 

ordered to pay a $36,000 civil forfeiture judgment. RMI, the company, pleaded guilty on June 

22, 2010, to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act and was immediately sentenced 

to five years probation and ordered to forfeit $1 million. The case was investigated by ICE and 

DCIS.
38

• Assault Rifles and Ammunition to Mexico – On May 13, 2011, Juan Sauceda was sentenced in 

the Southern District of Texas to 40 months in prison for conspiring to export weapons to 

Mexico. Sauceda was arrested on Nov. 23, 2010 after U.S. border officials found 10 semiautomatic firearms and large quantities of ammunition in his car as he was attempting to cross the 

border to Mexico. The investigation was conducted by ICE and ATF.

• Machine Guns and Grenades to Mexico – On April 22, 2011, Hector Rolando Enriquez was 

sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 55 months in prison. His co-defendant, Guillermo 

Enriquez-Rodriguez was sentenced on April 19, 2011 to 57 months in prison, and a third 

defendant, Rubisel Valdez-Mar, was sentenced on April 20, 2011 to 68 months in prison. All 

were sentenced for attempting to smuggle four machine guns and 30 grenades to Mexico. The 

investigation was conducted by ATF, ICE and Border Patrol.

• Munitions to Mexico – On April 14, 2011, Sergio Perez-Contreras was sentenced in the Southern 

District of Texas to 37 months in prison, while his co-defendant, Jose Jesus Miramontes-Duarte, 

was sentenced to 30 months in prison for their roles in attempting to export munitions to Mexico 

without a license. Both defendants were arrested on March 5, 2009 and later pleaded guilty to 

exporting munitions without a license in June 2010. The defendants were involved in an effort to 

illegally export 5,000 small pistol primers, 1,400 large pistol primers, 1,100 assorted calibers of 

rifle bullets, 19 pounds of smokeless powder and two rifle barrel blanks – enough materials to 

manufacture roughly 7,500 rounds of ammunition. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Illegal Exports of Military Night Vision Technology to China, Singapore & U.K. – On April 12, 

2011, the Justice Department announced that a government motion to dismiss the remaining

deferred criminal charge against ITT Corporation, the leading manufacturer of military night 

vision equipment for the U.S. Armed Forces, was granted by the court. On March 27, 2007, ITT 

Corporation pleaded guilty in the Western District of Virginia to two criminal counts of violating 

the Arms Export Control act stemming from its illegal exports of restricted military night vision 

data to China, Singapore, and the United Kingdom and omission of statements of material fact in 

required arms exports reports. As part of the plea agreement, ITT Corporation agreed to invest 

$50 million toward the development of the most advanced night vision systems in the world for 

the U.S. Armed Forces. The Justice Department agreed to dismiss the remaining criminal charge 

against ITT Corporation after ITT Corporation implemented an extensive remedial plan overseen 

by an independent monitor to prevent future Arms Export Control Act violations. ITT 

Corporation and the Justice Department will continue to work together to utilize resources set 

aside by the deferred prosecution agreement to further the development and fielding of the most 

advanced night vision technology. This investigation was conducted by DCIS and ICE. 

• Wire Fraud in Trade Secrets Case Involving China – On April 6, 2011, Yan Zhu, a Chinese 

citizen in the U.S. on a work visa, was convicted in the District of New Jersey on seven counts of 

wire fraud in connection with his scheme to steal confidential and proprietary business 

information relating to computer systems and software with environmental applications from his 

New Jersey employer. He was acquitted on the charge of conspiracy to steal trade secrets and 

two counts of unauthorized transmission of trade secrets in interstate or foreign commerce. April 

10, 2009, Zhu was arrested on charges of theft of trade secrets, conspiracy, wire fraud, and theft 

of honest services fraud in connection with a plot to steal software from his former U.S. employer 

and sell a modified version to the Chinese government after he was fired. Zhu was employed as a 

senior environmental engineer from May of 2006 until his termination in July of 2008. Zhu 

worked for a comprehensive multi-media environmental information management portal that 

developed a proprietary software program for the Chinese market which allows users to manage 
39

air emissions, ambient water quality, and ground water quality. Zhu was sentenced on Jan. 5, 

2012 to three years of probation and a $700 special assessment. This investigation was conducted 

by the FBI

• Firearms Components to the United Kingdom – On March 28, 2011, defendants Charles 

Shearon, Elmer Hill, Michael Curlett and Arnold See, Jr., pleaded guilty in the Middle District of 

Tennessee to conspiracy and violations of the Arms Export Control Act. On Feb. 8, 2011, a 

grand jury an indictment charging these defendants, another individual and a Nashville, Tenn., 

arms manufacturer with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and other offenses in 

connection with the illegal export and import of firearms and firearms components. The 

indictment charged Guy Savage, of the United Kingdom, Sabre Defence Industries, LLC, a 

Nashville-based arms manufacturing company owned by Savage, as well as four officers of 

Sabre: Charles Shearon, Elmer Hill, Michael Curlett, and Arnold See, Jr. The indictment alleged

that the defendants conspired to cause firearm components on the U.S. Munitions List to be 

exported from the United States without first obtaining authorization from the Department of 

State, by falsifying shipping records, concealing components in false bottoms of shipping cartons, 

and mislabeling and undervaluing shipments of firearm components. The investigation was 

conducted by the ATF and ICE.

• Assault Rifles and Explosives For Export – On March 22, 2011, Yanny Aguila Urbay was 

sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 60 months in prison and his co-defendant, 

Abdalaziz Aziz Hamayel, was sentenced to 48 months in prison. On Jan. 27, 2011, Urbay was 

convicted of conspiracy to possess stolen, fully-automatic M-16s, AK-47s and silencers, and 

receiving grenades and improvised explosive devices. On Dec. 16, 2010 Hamayel, pleaded guilty 

to conspiracy to possess stolen machine guns and to transport grenades and improvised explosive 

devices. Urbay and Hamayel were first charged by complaint on Aug. 31, 2010. The charges 

resulted from an undercover operation in which Hamayel and Urbay met with an undercover 

agent and discussed the purchase price of between 200-300 stolen automatic assault rifles, 150

grenades and remotely detonated explosives. According to the court documents, Hamayel 

indicated that the arms would be destined for abroad. During negotiations, the defendants were 

shown two M-16s, an AK-47, two grenades, and two improvised explosive devices for an 

unknown purchaser. Hamayel later requested a picture of the weapons to show his money 

supplier as proof that the weapons and explosives were available. Hamayel then traveled to the 

West Bank. Hamayel was arrested upon his return to Miami from Jordan on Aug. 30, 2010. 

Urbay was arrested on Sept. 6, 2010 in Miami. The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Semi-Automatic Assault Rifles to Mexico – On March 17, 2011, defendants Dario RodriguezGomez, Manuel Gamez-Valenzuela, and Daniel Bernal-Perez were sentenced in the Northern 

District of Georgia to 36 months in prison; 24 months in prison; and 84 months in prison, 

respectively. All three defendants were indicted on March 9, 2010. Rodriguez-Gomez pleaded 

guilty on Jan. 7, 2011 to conspiracy to transport semi-automatic assault rifles to Mexico as well as 

one count of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. Gamez-Valenzuela pleaded guilty 

to the conspiracy count on Jan. 7, 2011. Bernal-Perez pleaded guilty on Jan. 19, 2011 to being an 

illegal alien in possession of firearms. The investigation was conducted by ATF, DEA, and ICE.

• Firearms and Ammunition to Mexico – On March 10, 2011, a grand jury in New Mexico 

indicted 11 members of a firearms trafficking ring headquartered in Columbus, N.M. The 

defendants charged the indictment include Angelo Vega, the Columbus chief of police; Eddie 

Espinoza, the mayor of Columbus; and Blas Gutierrez, a Columbus village trustee, as well as Ian 

Garland, Alberto Rivera, Miguel Carrillo, Ricardo Gutierrez, Manuel Ortega, Vicente Carreon, 
40

Eva Lucie Gutierrez, and Ignacio Villalobos. Columbus is a small border village across from the 

Mexican city of Puerto Palomas. The indictment alleges that, between January 2010 and March 

2011, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to purchase firearms for illegal export to Mexico.

During this 14-month period, the defendants allegedly purchased approximately 200 firearms 

from Chaparral Guns in Chaparral, N.M. that are favored by the Mexican Cartels, including AK47-type pistols, weapons resembling AK-47 rifles, and 9 mm pistols. The defendants allegedly 

obtained firearms by falsely claiming they were the actual purchasers of the firearms, when they 

were actually acting as “straw purchaser” and buying the firearms on behalf of others. During the 

case, agents seized 40 AK-47 type pistols, 1,580 rounds of 7.62 ammunition and 30 high-capacity 

magazines from the defendants before they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The indictment 

alleges that 12 firearms previously purchased by the defendants later were found in Mexico and 

were traced back to these defendants. Angelo Vega pleaded guilty on Aug. 25, 2011 to one count 

of conspiracy to smuggle firearms, one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one 

count of extortion. Several other defendants have also pleaded guilty to charges in the 

indictment. Eddie Espinoza pleaded guilty on July 12, 2011 and was sentenced to 51 months in 

prison on June 14, 2012. Alberto Rivera pleaded guilty on July 15, 2011 and was sentenced to 90 

months in prison on Oct. 9, 2012. Miguel Carrillo pleaded guilty on July 19, 2011 and was 

sentenced on Oct. 9, 2012 to 46 months in prison. Manuel Ortega pleaded guilty on July 20, 2011 

and was sentenced to 70 months in prison on Oct. 9, 2012. Gabriela Gutierrez pleaded guilty on 

April 4, 2012 and was sentenced on Oct. 9, 2012 to 24 months in prison. Ian Garland pleaded 

guilty on July 21, 2011 and was sentenced to five years in prison on May 24, 2012. Vicente 

Carreon pleaded guilty on July 22, 2011 and was sentenced on March 21, 2012 to 46 months in 

prison. Eva Gutierrez pleaded guilty on July 15, 2011. Ricardo Gutierrez pleaded guilty on July 

18, 2011. Blas Gutierrez pleaded guilty on Aug. 1, 2011. The investigation was conducted by 

ATF, ICE and DEA.

 

• Firearms to Colombia -- On March 8, 2011, in the Southern District of Texas, Patrick Regan and 

his Colombian-born wife, Ximena del Pilar Echeverry Arias were arrested on a criminal 

complaint charging the couple with conspiracy, smuggling goods from the United States and 

possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. In Dec. 2010, agents saw Regan and 

Arias ship numerous boxes addressed to recipients in Colombia. An examination of those boxes 

resulted in a determination that the name of the addressee was fictitious, the shipping address was 

an abandoned residence in Colombia, the shipper’s name and address was fictitious and the 

contents falsely described. The boxes contained 16 firearms and each had its serial number 

obliterated. Agents intercepted two subsequent firearms shipments allegedly made by Regan to 

Colombian addresses. Records obtained during the investigation showed Arias, while living in 

Colombia, had allegedly signed for 12 of the 67 similarly suspicious packages addressed to her 

home and wire transferred more than $39,000 from a bank in Colombia to Regan’s account in the 

United States. At the time of the arrests, agents seized 50 lower and 13 upper receivers for AR15 style semi-automatic rifles, an unregistered fully assembled short-barrel AR-15 rifle, two 

pieces of metal working machinery and 13 AR-15 style lower receivers. The Colombian National 

Police arrested three individuals in Colombia and dismantled a workshop where firearms were 

being assembled from the lower receivers Regan and Arias allegedly supplied and other essential 

components. This investigation was conducted by ATF and ICE.

• Firearms and Ammunition to Mexico – On Feb. 11, 2011, Isaac Cervantes-Sanchez and Leonel 

Richard Soto, were sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 46 months in prison and 24 

months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the straw purchasing firearms and ammunition 

bound for Mexico. Cervantes-Sanchez was convicted of illegally exporting munitions, while 

Soto was convicted of lying to buy two AK-47s for Cervantes-Sanchez. Both men pleaded guilty 

to the offenses in December 2010. In August 2009, federal agents saw the defendants load
41

approximately 4,000 rounds of ammunition into a vehicle driven by Cervantes. CBP agents 

stopped Cervantes and Soto as they attempted to leave the United States. Cervantes admitted to 

exporting the ammunition to Mexico. Soto purchased two AK-47 type firearms for Cervantes and 

was paid $300 to do so. Both men have been in federal custody since their August 2008 arrest. 

The investigation was conducted by ATF, ICE and CBP.

• Ammunition to Mexico – On Feb. 11, 2011, Arnulfo Chavarin, Mariano Perez-Rodriguez and 

Francisco Chavez were arrested in the District of Arizona in connection with the export of 

firearms and ammunition to Mexico. Authorities discovered 12,525 rounds of ammunition in 

Chavarin’s vehicle at the Douglas, Ariz., port of entry. Perez-Rodriguez and Chavez face 

additional charges as illegal aliens in possession of weapons. 

• Assault Weapon Parts and Gun Sights to Philippines – On Feb. 7, 2011, Mike Cabatingan 

pleaded guilty in the District of Arizona to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and 

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. On Feb. 24, 2010, a federal grand jury in the 

Central District of California returned an indictment against Cabatingan, Romulo Reclusado and 

another man for conspiring to illegally export defense articles and other controlled items from the 

United States to the Philippines. The defendants allegedly conspired to export to the Philippines 

molds used to make components for AR-15 assault rifles as well as holographic rifle sights. 

Aguayo and Cabatingan were arrested on Feb. 25, 2010. Reclusado remains at large. Reclusado 

was previously convicted in 1997 of conspiracy to transfer machine guns and illegally 

transferring machine guns for which he received a 27-month prison sentence. On Jan. 12, 2011, 

the court granted a motion to dismiss the case against the third defendant. The investigation was 

conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Tactical SUVs Armed with M 134 Mini-guns to Turkmenistan – On Feb 4, 2011, Ruslan 

Gilchenko was sentenced in the District of Arizona to 18 months in prison and three years 

supervised release for conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act. A Feb. 24, 2010 

indictment charged Gilchenko and Victor Dobrogaiev with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export 

Control Act, money laundering and fraud charges. According to the charges, Gilchenko and 

Dobrogaiev attempted to obtain three sport utility vehicles outfitted with M134 Mini-guns, which 

are fully automatic defense suppression weapons that fire at a rate of 3,000 rounds per minute, for 

illegal export to Turkmenistan. As part of the conspiracy, the defendants allegedly agreed to pay 

$1.2 million to purchase three armed vehicles and forwarded $340,000 to sellers in the U.S. as a 

down payment. In connection with the transaction, Gilchenko, who represents a company in 

Slovenia called MG CZ Group, allegedly sought to defraud the government of Turkmenistan of 

by causing the price of the transaction to be inflated. Gilchenko pleaded guilty to the conspiracy 

count on Sept. 29, 2010. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Specialized Metals For Iranian Missile Program – On Feb. 1, 2011, an indictment returned on 

July 21, 2010, was unsealed in the District of Columbia charging Milad Jafari, an Iranian citizen 

and resident, with illegally exporting and attempting to export specialized metals from the United 

States through companies in Turkey to several entities in Iran -- including entities that have been 

sanctioned for their involvement in Iran’s ballistic missile activities. The Treasury Department

also designated Jafari, several of his family members, associates, and corporate entities in Iran 

and Turkey, under Executive Order 13382, which targets for sanctions the proliferators of 

weapons of mass destruction and their supporters – thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial 

and commercial systems. According to the Treasury designation, Jafari and his associates operate 

a procurement network that provides direct support to Iran’s missile program by securing metal 

products, including steel and aluminum alloys, for subordinates of Iran’s Aerospace Industries 
42

Organization (AIO). The indictment alleges that Jafari and others operated Macpar and STEP, 

businesses with locations in Istanbul and Tehran. From Feb. 2004 through Aug. 2007, Jafari and 

his conspirators solicited orders from customers in Iran and purchased goods from U.S. 

companies on behalf of these Iranian customers. Jafari and others allegedly wired money to the 

U.S. companies as payment, concealed from the U.S. companies the end-use of the goods, and 

caused the goods to be shipped to Turkey and later to Iran. For instance, the indictment alleges 

that in July 2006, Sanam Industrial Group – an entity in Iran that is controlled by Iran’s AIO and 

has since been sanctioned by the U.S. and United Nations for involvement in nuclear and ballistic 

missile activities -- issued to Jafari’s company, STEP, a request for quote for 660 pounds of a 

specialized steel welding wire with aerospace applications in rocket/missile casings. Jafari 

caused an order to be placed for 660 pounds of this welding wire with a Nevada company. The 

following month, the Nevada firm received more than $38,000 from Jafari’s company, Macpar. 

According to the indictment, Jafari made arrangements for the welding wire to be picked up from 

the Nevada company. In response to questions from the Nevada company about the end-use of 

the welding wire, Jafari told the company that the materials “will not be exported from Turkey 

and will not be used for any nuclear, missile or chemical/biological weapons related 

applications,” the indictment alleges. The shipment was detained by the Commerce Department 

in 2007 before it left the country. The indictment alleges that Jafari and his conspirators were 

successful in causing several shipments of other materials to be exported from the United States 

to Iran via Turkey, including: three kilograms of custom-made brazing alloy, 1,366 pounds of 

commercial bronze bars, electronic testing equipment, U.S. fiber-optic equipment and aerosol 

generators for fire suppression systems. The investigation was conducted by BIS and FBI.

• Electronics Used in Military Radar & Electronic Warfare to China – On Jan. 27, 2011, Yufeing 

Wei was sentenced in the District of Massachusetts to 36 months in prison, while on Jan. 26, 

2011, her co-defendant, Zhen Zhou Wu, was sentenced to 97 months in prison. Their company, 

Chitron Electronics, Inc. was fined $15.5 million. Wei, Wu and Chitron Electronics, Inc. were 

convicted at trial on May 17, 2010 of conspiring for a period of more than ten years to illegally 

export to the People’s Republic of China military electronics components and sensitive 

electronics used in military phased array radar, electronic warfare and missile systems. Several 

Chinese military entities were among those receiving the exported equipment. Wu and Wei were 

also both convicted of filing false shipping documents with the U.S. government. As proven at 

trial, defendants illegally exported military electronic components to China through Hong Kong. 

The electronics exported are primarily used in military phased array radar, electronic warfare, 

military guidance systems, and military satellite communications. The defendants also illegally 

exported Commerce Department-controlled electronics components to China with military 

applications such as electronic warfare, military radar, and satellite communications systems. Wu

founded and controlled Chitron, with headquarters in Shenzhen, China and a U.S. office located 

in Waltham, Mass., where defendant Wei served as Manager. Wu and Chitron sold electronics 

from the U.S. to Chinese military factories and military research institutes, including numerous 

institutes of the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, which is responsible for the 

procurement, development and manufacture of electronics for the Chinese military. Since as 

early as 2002, Wu referred to Chinese military entities as Chitron’s major customer and employed 

an engineer at Chitron’s Shenzhen office to work with Chinese military customers. By 2007, 

25% of Chitron’s sales were to Chinese military entities. Shenzhen Chitron Electronics Company 

Limited, Wu’s Chinese company through which U.S. electronics were delivered to the Chinese 

military and other end-users, was also indicted. On Feb. 9, 2011, Chitron-Shenzhen received a 

fine of $1.9 million for refusing to appear for trial. Co-defendant Bo Li, aka Eric Lee, previously 

pled guilty to making false statements on shipping documents. The case was investigated by BIS; 

ICE; FBI; and DCIS.
43

• AK-47s and Other Firearms to Mexico – On Jan. 25, 2011, federal prosecutors in the District of 

Arizona announced that grand juries had returned five different indictments against 34 defendants 

accused of illegally trafficking firearms from the United States to Mexico. That day, law 

enforcement authorities in Arizona arrested 20 defendants charged in one indictment (U.S. v. 

Avila et al) with conspiring to purchase hundreds of firearms, including AK-47s, to be illegally 

exported to Mexico, by acting as “straw purchasers,” i.e., falsely declaring they were buying the 

weapons for themselves when they were purchasing them for others. Four other indictments 

(U.S. v. Flores, U.S. v. Broome, U.S. v. Aguilar, and U.S. v. Abarca) charged 14 additional 

defendants with making false statement during the purchase of a firearm, in connection with 

“straw purchases” of multiple firearms destined for Mexico. On Aug. 22, 2011, defendant Jeffrey 

David Broome was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years supervised release, after 

pleading guilty on May 23, 2011 to conspiracy violations. Defendant Daniel Kevin Abarca 

pleaded guilty on Aug. 8, 2011 to false statements in connection with the acquisition of a firearm 

and he was sentenced Aug. 10, 2011 to time served and three years supervised release. The 

investigations were conducted by an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force consisting 

of ATF, ICE, IRS, DEA, the Department of Agriculture and the Phoenix Police Department.

• Stealth Missile Exhaust Designs and Military Technical Data to China – On Jan. 24, 2011, a 

federal judge in the District of Hawaii sentenced Noshir Gowadia, 66, of Maui to 32 years in 

prison for communicating classified national defense information to the People’s Republic of 

China (PRC), illegally exporting military technical data, as well as money laundering, filing false 

tax returns and other offenses. On Aug. 9, 2010, a federal jury in the District of Hawaii found 

Gowadia guilty of 14 criminal violations after six days of deliberation and a 40-day trial. These 

included five criminal offenses relating to his design for the PRC of a low-signature cruise 

missile exhaust system capable of rendering a PRC cruise missile resistant to detection by 

infrared missiles. The jury also convicted Gowadia of three counts of illegally communicating 

classified information regarding lock-on range for infrared missiles against the U.S. B-2 bomber 

to persons not authorized to receive such information. Gowadia was also convicted of unlawfully 

exporting classified information about the B-2, illegally retaining information related to U.S. 

national defense at his home, money laundering and filing false tax returns for the years 2001 and 

2002. Gowadia was an engineer with Northrop Grumman Corporation from 1968 to 1986, during 

which time he contributed to the development of the unique propulsion system and low 

observable capabilities of the B-2 bomber. Gowadia continued to work on classified matters as a 

contractor with the U.S. government until 1997, when his security clearance was terminated. 

Evidence at trial revealed that from July 2003 to June 2005, Gowadia took six trips to the PRC to 

provide defense services in the form of design, test support and test data analysis of technologies 

for the purpose of assisting the PRC with its cruise missile system by developing a stealthy 

exhaust nozzle and was paid at least $110,000 by the PRC. The jury convicted Gowadia of two 

specific transmissions of classified information: a PowerPoint presentation on the exhaust nozzle 

of a PRC cruise missile project and an evaluation of the effectiveness of a redesigned nozzle, and 

a computer file providing his signature prediction of a PRC cruise missile outfitted with his 

modified exhaust nozzle and associated predictions in relation to a U.S. air-to-air missile. The 

prosecution also produced evidence which documented Gowadia’s use of three foreign entities he 

controlled, including a Liechtenstein charity purportedly for the benefit of children, to disguise 

the income he received from foreign countries. This case was investigated by FBI, the U.S. Air

Force Office of Special Investigations, the IRS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and ICE.

• Ammunition Primers to Jamaica – On Jan. 24, 2011, Orville Andrew Braham, of Brockton, 

Mass., was indicted in the Southern District of Florida in connection with the transportation in his 

luggage of ammunition primers, which caused an explosion at the Miami International Airport on 

Dec. 28, 2010. Braham boarded a flight in Boston ultimately bound for Jamaica with hundreds of 
44

.45 caliber ammunition primers concealed in his luggage. The primers exploded when a baggage 

handler at the Miami airport placed the luggage on the ground. On Feb. 22, 2011, Braham 

pleaded guilty to charges in the case. He was later sentenced on May 10, 2011 to six months in 

prison followed by 6 months supervised release, but later received an amended sentence 

changing his supervised release to three years. The investigation was conducted by FBI, ATF 

and Department of Transportation. 

• AK-47s Assault Rifles to Somalia – On Jan. 17, 2011, Chanoch Miller, an Israeli national, was 

sentenced to 18 months in prison and 36 months supervised release, while his co-defendant 

Joseph O’Toole, a former U.S. Air Force Colonel F-4 fighter pilot, was sentenced on Dec. 14, 

2010 to 12 months and a day in prison followed by 24 months of supervised release. On Oct. 5, 

2010, Miller and O’Toole pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Florida to charges of 

knowingly and willfully conspiring to export AK-47 assault rifles from the U.S. to Somalia 

without a license from the Department of State. According to the indictment and statements 

made during the plea hearing, beginning in April 2010, Miller contacted O’Toole to arrange for 

the transportation of approximately 6,000 fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles from Bosnia to 

Somalia. To facilitate the transportation of the AK-47 assault rifles, O’Toole contacted an 

individual who, unbeknownst to O’Toole, was working undercover for ICE and the DCIS. Miller 

agreed to purchase 700 fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles from the undercover 

individual. These assault rifles were to be shipped from the United States through Panama and 

then to Somalia. Miller paid $116,000 to the undercover individual as partial payment of the 

transportation costs and commissions to O’Toole for the shipment of the 700 assault rifles. Both 

defendants were charged in a June 17, 2010 indictment with conspiring and attempting to 

illegally export defense articles, money laundering and money laundering conspiracy. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Bullet-Proof Vest Inserts to Colombia – On Jan. 13, 2011, Jerome Stewart Pendzich, of 

Hampton, Tenn., pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Tennessee to violating the Arms Export 

Control Act. According to court documents, ICE agents became aware that Pendzich was 

attempting to sell a bullet-proof vest on E-bay. In May and June 2009, Pendzich attempted to 

export military-grade, small-arms protective inserts to purchasers in Colombia, who were 

undercover agents. Pendzich was sentenced to 46 months in prison and three years supervised 

release on Oct. 12, 2011. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Weapons to Mexico – On Jan. 11, 2011, former U.S. Army First Sergeant Manuel ZamoraMendoza was sentenced to three years probation in the Southern District of Texas in connection 

with his efforts to smuggle rifles, ammunition and night vision goggles to Mexico. On July 3, 

2010, Zamora-Mendoza was arrested while attempting to enter Mexico from Laredo after CBP 

officers found seven rifles, two handguns, six rifle scopes and 6,729 rounds of ammunition, and a 

pair of night vision goggles concealed in his vehicle. The night vision goggles were from his 

military unit in Fort Hood. This investigation was conducted by ICE and ATF.

• Iran Embargo Violations – On Jan. 10, 2011, the Child Foundation, a charity in Oregon, and its 

founder and CEO, Mehrdad Yasrebi, pleaded guilty in the District of Oregon to conspiracy to 

defraud the United States by concealing violations of the U.S.-embargo on Iran. Yasrebi and the 

charity admitted that they used several different methods to facilitate money transfers to Iran 

through the Child Foundation. Using a series of money transmitters and the Swiss bank account 

of a related charity, the defendants arranged for claimed embargo-exempt food commodities 

transactions from Dubai designed to disguise what were, in reality, significant cash transfers to 

Iran. On March 6, 2012, Yasrebi was sentenced to five years probation with a year of home 
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detention, and a $50,000 fine. In addition, the Child Foundation was sentenced to two years 

probation on the condition that it receives OFAC approval for any continuing activities, on their 

behalf, involving cash or in kind goods transfers into Iran. Child Foundation was also ordered to 

pay a $50,000 fine. This investigation was conducted by the FBI, IRS, and ICE. 

• U.S. Military Equipment to Yemen – On Jan. 7, 2011, Amen Ahmed Ali was sentenced in the 

Eastern District of California to five years in prison followed by three years supervised release for 

conspiracy to act as an illegal agent of a foreign government, to possess stolen government 

property, and to unlawfully export defense materials. Ali pleaded guilty to these violations on 

Oct. 7, 2010. Beginning in 1987, Ali conspired with others to act as an unregistered agent of the 

Government of Yemen, and received instructions and acted on behalf of the Armed Forces 

Department of the Republic of Yemen. Ali admitted that he took official actions on behalf of the 

Yemeni Government and that, among other things, he issued documents in 2002 ordering the 

arrest of a person upon his return to Yemen. Ali also admitted that in 2003 he had conspired with 

another person to cause various defense articles to be exported to Yemen without a license, 

including bullet proof vests and chemical protective suits. Finally, Ali admitted in his plea 

agreement that in late 2005 and early 2006, he negotiated with an undercover FBI agent to obtain 

and ship to Yemen materials that he believed were stolen U.S. military equipment, including 

night vision goggles, satellite telephones and laptop computers. The investigation was conducted 

by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, including FBI and ICE.

• Assault Weapons to Mexico – On Jan. 5, 2011, Jesus Quintanilla was sentenced in the Southern 

District of Texas to 37 months in prison for straw purchasing 13 firearms. He was arrested in July 

2010 and pleaded guilty in October 2010. After ATF agents saw Quintanilla attempt to purchase 

an AK-47 type weapon, agents approached him and he admitted to agents that he had previously 

purchased nine AK-47 type weapons and four pistils for another person who was reportedly 

associated with a Mexican drug cartel. The investigation was conducted by the ATF.

• Weapons and Ammunition to Nigeria – On Jan. 3, 2011, Emenike Charles Nwankwoala, of 

Laurel, Md., was sentenced in the District of Maryland to 37 months in prison followed by two 

years supervised release in connection with a scheme to export guns, including shotguns and 

pistols, and ammunition to Nigeria. According to the charges, Nwankwoala illegally shipped 

weapons and ammunition to Nigeria for a decade, while employed as a state probation officer. 

He concealed the weapons and ammunition in shipping containers and lied about the contents and 

destination of these items. The investigation was conducted by ICE, ATF, and BIS.

• Arms Exports to Russia – On Dec. 13, 2010, in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Sergey 

Korznikov, a Russian citizen, pleaded guilty to a superseding information charging him with 

conspiracy to smuggle military articles from the United States to Russia. Korznikov was later 

sentenced to 6 months in prison and two years supervised release on July 21, 2011. On July 29, 

2010, Korznikov’s co-defendant Mark Komoroski was sentenced to 32 months in prison and 

ordered to pay $10,000 after pleading guilty to conspiring to smuggle military equipment to 

Russia. Komoroski, of Nanticoke, Pa.; Korznikov, of Moscow, and two companies, D&R Sports 

Center and Tactica Limited, were charged in a 2008 superseding indictment with conspiring to 

smuggle military equipment, including rifle scopes, magazines for firearms, face shields, and 

other military equipment from the United States to Russian to be resold to unknown persons. The 

government later dismissed the charges against the corporate defendants, D&R Sports Center and 

Tactica Limited. The case was investigated by ICE, IRS, ATF, U.S. Postal Service, Department 

of Commerce and DCIS.
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• Valspar Trade Secrets to China – On Dec. 8, 2010, David Yen Lee, a former chemist for Valspar 

Corporation, a Chicago paint manufacturing company, was sentenced in the Northern District of 

Illinois to 15 months in prison for stealing trade secrets involving numerous formulas and other 

proprietary information valued up to $20 million as he prepared to go to work for a competitor in 

China. Lee, formerly a technical director in Valspar Corp’s architectural coatings group since 

2006, pleaded guilty in Sept. 2010 to using his access to Valspar’s secure internal computer 

network to download approximately 160 original batch tickets, or secret formulas for paints and 

coatings. Lee also obtained raw materials information, chemical formulas and calculations, sales 

and cost data, and other internal memoranda, product research, marketing data, and other 

materials from Valspar. Lee admitted that between September 2008 and February 2009, he had 

negotiated employment with Nippon Paint, in Shanghai, China and accepted employment with 

Nippon as vice president of technology and administrator of research and development. Lee was 

scheduled to fly from Chicago to Shanghai on March 27, 2009. He did not inform Valspar that he 

had accepted a job at Nippon until he resigned on March 16, 2009. Between November 2008 and 

March 2009, Lee downloaded technical documents and materials belonging to Valspar, including 

the paint formula batch tickets. He further copied certain downloaded files to external thumb 

drives to store the data, knowing that he intended to use the confidential information belong to 

Valspar for his own benefit. There was no evidence that he actually disclosed any of the stolen 

trade secrets. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Digital Microwave Radios to Iran – On Nov. 23, 2010, Vikramiditya Singh, a resident of 

Fountain Hills, Arizona, and the owner of Orion Telecom Networks, Inc., pleaded guilty in the 

District of Delaware to a one count information alleging that he caused and attempted to cause the 

illegal export of digital microwave radios to Iran between Sept. 2008 and May 2010. On March 

3, 2011, he was sentenced to a fine of $100,000 and three years probation. This case was 

investigated by ICE.

• Ford Motor Company Trade Secrets to China – On Nov. 17, 2010, Yu Xiang Dong, aka Mike 

Yu, a product engineer with Ford Motor Company pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of 

Michigan to two counts of theft of trade secrets. According to the plea agreement, Yu was a 

Product Engineer for Ford from 1997 to 2007 and had access to Ford trade secrets, including Ford 

design documents. In December 2006, Yu accepted a job at the China branch of a U.S. company. 

On the eve of his departure from Ford and before he told Ford of his new job, Yu copied some 

4,000 Ford documents onto an external hard drive, including sensitive Ford design documents. 

Ford spent millions of dollars and decades on research, development, and testing to develop and 

improve the design specifications set forth in these documents. On Dec. 20, 2006, Yu traveled to 

the location of his new employer in Shenzhen, China, taking the Ford trade secrets with him. On 

Jan. 2, 2007, Yu emailed his Ford supervisor from China and informed him that he was leaving 

Ford’s employ. In Nov. 2008, Yu began working for Beijing Automotive Company, a direct 

competitor of Ford. On Oct. 19, 2009, Yu returned to the U.S. Upon his arrival, he was arrested. 

At that time, Yu had in his possession his Beijing Automotive Company laptop computer. Upon 

examination of that computer, the FBI discovered that 41 Ford system design specifications 

documents had been copied to the defendant’s Beijing Automotive Company work computer. The 

FBI also discovered that each of those design documents had been accessed by Yu during the 

time of his employment with Beijing Automotive Company. Yu was ultimately sentenced to 70 

months in prison in April 2011. This case was investigated by the FBI.

• Fully Automatic AK-47 Machine Guns to Drug Cartels in Mexico – On Nov. 9, 2010, Julian 

Garcia-Penaloza (aka Martin Ramirez-Rodriguez) was sentenced in the Northern District of 

Florida to 572 months in prison after pleading guilty on Aug. 17, 2010 to conspiracy to export 
47

machine guns to Mexico, conspiracy to possess and transfer machine guns, as well as additional 

drug and firearm charges. On June 22, 2010, a federal indictment was returned charging GarciaPenaloza and Ramiro Gomez-Gomez, both of Mexico, with conspiracy to illegally export 50 

fully-automatic AK-47 machine guns to Mexico for use by drug cartels. According to the 

indictment, Gomez-Gomez told an undercover agent that he had a contact in Mexico who was 

seeking 800 AK-47s. The defendants also allegedly indicated they were also willing to purchase 

grenades, bulletproof vests, and ammunition for Mexican cartel operatives. Ultimately, the 

defendants arranged for $23,000 as a down payment for the purchase of 50 fully-automatic AK47s. Gomez-Gomez and Garcia-Penaloza were also charged with illegal possession of firearms 

and drug violations. The indictment charged five other defendants, including Santiago ValdezGomez, Jose Barajas, Pascual Montor-Torres, and Maria Cifuentes-Espinoza and Florencio 

Barrios-Hernandez, in connection with a related drug conspiracy. The investigation was 

conducted by ATF, DEA, ICE and local law enforcement in the Northern District of Florida.

• Firearms to Kosovo & Austria – On Nov. 5, 2010, Ramadan Rama, a native of Kosovo, was 

charged by criminal complaint in the Eastern District of North Carolina with unlawfully shipping 

firearms on a common carrier and illegally exporting firearms. Rama allegedly transported two 

semi-automatic pistols on a flight from North Carolina to Kosovo and later transported a semiautomatic pistol on a flight from North Carolina to Austria. He was later indicted in December 

2010 on charges that included violations of the Arms Export Control Act. Rama pleaded guilty 

on March 9, 2011 to failure to notify a commercial carrier of a firearm and exporting defense 

articles without a license. He was sentenced on July 21, 2011 to 18 months in prison. This 

investigation was conducted by ICE.

• DuPont Trade Secrets to China – On Oct. 26, 2010, Hong Meng, a former research chemist for 

DuPont, was sentenced in the District of Delaware to 14 months in prison and $58,621 in 

restitution for theft of trade secrets. Meng pleaded guilty on June 8, 2010. Meng was involved in 

researching Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) during his tenure at DuPont. In early 2009, 

DuPont’s OLED research efforts resulted in the development of a breakthrough chemical process 

(trade secret) that increased the performance and longevity of OLED displays. In the Spring of 

2009, while still employed at DuPont and without DuPont’s permission or knowledge, Meng 

accepted employment as a faculty member at Peking University (PKU) College of Engineering, 

Department of Nanotechnology in Beijing, China, and thereafter began soliciting funding to 

commercialize his OLED research at PKU. In June 2009, he emailed to his PKU account the 

protected chemical process from DuPont. He also downloaded the chemical process from his 

DuPont work computer to a thumb drive which he uploaded to his personal computer. In August 

2009, he mailed a package containing 109 samples of DuPont intermediate chemical compounds 

to a colleague at Northwestern University and instructed his colleague at Northwestern to forward 

the materials to Meng’s office at PKU. Eight of the 109 samples were trade secret chemical 

compounds. Meng also made false statements to the FBI when questioned about these samples. 

This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Rocket Propulsion Systems, Engines and Technology to South Korea – On Oct. 20, 2010, 

Juwhan Yun, a.k.a. Jw Yun, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Korean origin, was sentenced in the 

Southern District of Florida to 57 months in prison and 3 years supervised release. On May 14, 

2010, Yun pleaded guilty to attempting to illegally export defense articles to South Korea, 

including components for a 20 mm gun, known as the M61Vulcan; components for a SU-27 

Russian fighter jet; and RD-180 rocket propulsion systems, and related technology without the 

required State Department licenses. Yun was arrested on April 15, 2009, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 

and subsequently indicted on April 29, 2009 for attempting to purchase rocket materials for a 

company working on the Korean Satellite Launch Vehicle project and which was previously 
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involved in developing Korea’s KOMPSAT-1 satellite. Yun was previously convicted in May 

1989 of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act in connection with an effort to export 

500 quarter-ton bombs of sarin nerve gas to Iran. None of the bombs ultimately made it to Iran. 

He was sentenced to 39 months in federal prison in 1989. He was released from federal prison in 

March 1991 and was debarred by the State Department as a result of his conviction. This 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Missiles, Grenade Launchers & Other Weapons to Sri Lankan Terrorists: On Oct. 18, 2010, a 

federal jury in the District of Maryland convicted Balraj Naidu, a citizen of Singapore, of 

conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization stemming from his 

efforts to supply the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) with advanced American 

weaponry. He was later sentenced to 57 months in prison on Dec. 16, 2010. Beginning in 

February 2006, Naidu and his co-conspirators attempted to purchase state of the art weaponry 

from China, Thailand, North Korea, the Phillipines and Indonesia for the Tamil Tigers operating 

within Sri Lanka, to be used to fight against Sri Lankan government forces. Several arms 

merchants refused to supply the Tamil Tigers with weaponry once the destination for the arms 

had been disclosed by Naidu and his associates. In April 2006, Naidu’s Indonesian sources for 

weapons unwittingly introduced Naidu and his associates to an agent for an undercover business 

in Maryland that purported to sell military weapons. In the subsequent months, the conspirators’ 

negotiations with the undercover agent centered on the acquisition of American made weaponry.

Terms of the sale included delivery of the weapons to locations in international waters off the 

coast of Sri Lanka. The weaponry was to be off-loaded by the Sea Tigers, the naval branch of the 

Tamil Tigers. A co-conspirator, Haniffa Bin Osman, visited Baltimore in the summer of 2006, 

where he examined and test-fired much of the weaponry. As a result of the trip, Tamil Tiger 

representatives wire transferred $250,000 into the undercover business’ accounts as down 

payment on a $900,000 weapons deal. Approximately 28 tons of weapons and ammunition, 

which the conspirators believed they were purchasing, was air-lifted to the U.S. territory of 

Guam. On September 29, 2006, after inspecting the weapons and transferring an additional 

$450,000 into the undercover business’ accounts, co-conspirators Bin Osman, Haji Subandi, 

Erick Wotulo and Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa were arrested and indicted. The investigation 

continued and led to the indictment of Naidu and an alleged Tamil Tigers financier on charges of 

conspiracy to provide material support to the Tamil Tigers and related offenses. Thirunavukarasu 

Varatharasa, a citizen of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka; Haji Subandi and retired 

Indonesian Marine Corps General Erick Wotulo, both citizens of the Republic of Indonesia; and 

Haniffa Bin Osman, a citizen of the Republic of Singapore, pleaded guilty to their participation in 

the conspiracy and were sentenced to 57 months, 37 months, 30 months and 37 months in prison, 

respectively, in 2007 and 2008. Two additional defendants, Rinehard Rusli and Helmi Soedirdja, 

pleaded guilty to export and money laundering violations in January 2007 as part of a related plot 

to provide military night vision devices to the Indonesian military. The case was investigated by 

ICE, FBI, and DCIS.

• Restricted Electronics to China – On Oct. 11, 2010, York Yuan Chang, known as David Zhang, 

and his wife, Leping Huang, were arrested on charges in the Central District of California of 

conspiring to export restricted electronics technology to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 

without a license and making false statements. According to the Oct. 9, 2010 criminal complaint, 

the defendants are the owners of General Technology Systems Integration, Inc., (GTSI), a 

California company involved in the export of technology to the PRC. GTSI allegedly entered 

into contracts with the 24th Research Institute of the China Electronics Technology Corporation 

Group in China to design and transfer to the PRC technology for the development of two-types of 

high-performance analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The defendants allegedly hired two 

engineers to design the technology and provide training to individuals in the PRC. Twice in 
49

2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials stopped the engineers upon their return to the 

United States and allegedly found computer files and documents indicating illegal technology 

transfer involving GTSI and China. According to the complaint, Chang and Huang allegedly 

sought to cover up the project after authorities contacted the engineers. The ADCs that the 

defendants allegedly attempted to export to the PRC are subject to export controls for national 

security and anti-terrorism reasons. This investigation was conducted by the FBI, BIS, ICE, IRS 

and DCIS.

• U.S. Fighter Jet Engines and Parts to Iran – On Sept 22, 2010, Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian 

national and resident of France suspected of international arms dealing for decades, was 

sentenced by a judge in the Southern District of Alabama to 23 months imprisonment. On Nov. 

23, 2009, Monsieur pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and 

parts from the Untied States to Iran. He and co-conspirator Dara Fatouhi were first charged by 

indictment on Aug. 27, 2009, with conspiring to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts 

from the United States to Iran, as well as money laundering, smuggling, and Iran embargo 

violations. Monsieur was arrested on Aug. 28, 2009 after arriving in New York aboard a flight 

from Panama. Fatouhi, an Iranian national living in France who allegedly worked with the 

Iranian government to procure military items, remains at large. During a series of e-mails and 

meetings in Paris and London with undercover federal agents, Monsieur requested engines and 

parts for the F-5 fighter jet for export to Iran. Monsieur requested that the items be routed through 

Colombia and the United Arab Emirates on their way to Iran. He also arranged for a wire transfer 

of $110,000 as payment for F-5 fighter jet parts and indicated to undercover agents that a deposit 

of $300,000 would be forthcoming as payment for two F-5 fighter jet engines. The investigation 

was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Iran Embargo Violations – On Aug. 16, 2010, Mahmoud Reza Banki was sentenced in the 

Southern District of New York to 30 months in prison for violating the Iran trade embargo, 

operating an unlicensed money transmittal business between the U.S. and Iran, conspiracy and 

false statements. From Jan. 2006 to Sept. 2009, Banki, a U.S. citizen and resident of Manhattan, 

provided money transmitting serves to residents of Iran by participating in the operation of a 

hawala. Banki used the hawala network to receive wire transfers totaling $3.4 million from 

companies and individuals around the globe into a personal bank account that he maintained for 

this purpose at Bank of America in Manhattan. Banki then would notify his father or one of his 

Iran-based hawala operators of the deposits, so that a corresponding amount of Iranian currency 

could be disbursed in Iran. Banki was found guilty on June 4, 2010, after first being indicted on 

Jan. 6, 2010. The investigation was conducted by ICE and OFAC. 

• Nuclear-Related Equipment to Iran – On July 29, 2010, Mahmoud Yadegari was sentenced in a 

Canadian court in Toronto to four years and three months in prison for attempting to export 

pressure transducers that he had purchased in the United States to Iran, via Canada. Yadegari 

purchased pressure transducers from a company in Massachusetts and transported them to 

Canada. From there, he attempted to export the items to the United Arab Emirates, and 

ultimately to Iran in March 2009. Pressure transducers have applications in the production of 

enriched uranium. The Massachusetts company alerted ICE to the purchases, which, in turn 

worked with Canadian authorities. Yadegari was found guilty on July 6, 2010 of nine charges, 

including the Customs Act, the United Nations Act, the Export Import Permits Act, and the 

Nuclear Safety and Control Act. He was originally arrested by Canadian authorities in 2009 after 

a joint investigation by BIS, ICE and Canadian authorities.
50

• Combat Riflescopes Overseas – On July 29, 2010, Chou-Fu Ho pleaded guilty in the Southern 

District of California to Arms Export Control Act violations and other charges. He was later 

sentenced on Sept. 20, 2011 to five years supervised release and a $10,000 fine. Chou-Fu Ho was 

arrested on June 25, 2010, after being indicted on charges of smuggling and illegally exporting 

military night vision systems to various locations overseas without the required State Department 

licenses. According to the indictment, Ho illegally exported to Hong Kong and Japan combat 

riflescopes listed on the U.S. Munitions List without obtaining the required export licenses. Ho 

also allegedly attempted to illegally export combat riflescopes to Ireland, Austria and the United 

Arab Emirates. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• GM Trade Secrets to China – On July 22, 2010, an indictment returned in the Eastern District of 

Michigan charging Yu Qin and his wife Shanshan Du, both of Troy, Michigan, was unsealed. 

The indictment charged the defendants with conspiracy to possess trade secrets without 

authorization, unauthorized possession of trade secrets and wire fraud. According to the 

indictment, from December 2003 through May 2006, the defendants conspired to possess trade 

secret information of General Motors Company relating to hybrid vehicles, knowing that the 

information had been stolen, converted, or obtained without authorization. The indictment alleges 

that Du, while employed with GM, provided GM trade secret information relating to hybrid 

vehicles to her husband, Qin, for his benefit and for the benefit of a company, Millennium 

Technology International Inc. (MTI), which the defendants owned and operated. Five days after 

Du was offered a severance agreement by GM in January 2005, she copied thousands of GM 

documents, including trade secret documents, to a computer hard drive used for MTI business. A 

few months later, Qin moved forward on a new business venture to provide hybrid vehicle 

technology to Chery Automobile, a Chinese automotive manufacturer based in China and a 

competitor of GM. The indictment further alleges that in May 2006, the defendants possessed 

GM trade secret information without authorization on several computer and electronic devices 

located in their residence. Based on preliminary calculations, GM estimates that the value of 

the stolen GM documents is over $40 million. This investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• F-5 Fighter Jet Components to Iran – On July 7, 2010, a superseding indictment was returned in 

the District of Columbia charging Mac Aviation Group, an Irish trading company, and its officers 

Thomas and Sean McGuinn of Sligo, Ireland, with purchasing F-5 fighter aircraft parts from U.S. 

firms and illegally exporting them to Iran. The defendants were previously charged in July 2008 

in connection with illegally exporting helicopter engines and other aircraft components to Iran. 

The new charges allege that, from 2005 and continuing until 2006, the defendants caused canopy 

panels designed for the F-5 fighter jet, valued at $44,500 to be exported from the United States to 

Iran and that the defendants falsely stated that the end-user for the panels was Nigeria. The 

transaction with Iran was allegedly arranged through the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial 

Company, known as HESA, which has been designated by the United States as an entity involved 

weapons mass destruction proliferation. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Oil Field Equipment to the Sudan – On June 22, 2010, Agar Corporation Inc., a company in 

Houston, pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Texas to violating the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act and agreed to pay $2 million in criminal fines and forfeiture as 

well as civil penalties to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The company was 

sentenced two days later to four years probation and a $760,000 fine. Agar Corporation illegally 

facilitated the export of multi-phase flow meters by an affiliate in Venezuela to the Sudan for use 

in the Melut Basin oilfield in violation of the embargo on the Sudan. The investigation was 

conducted by ICE.
51

• Military Optics Technology to China, Russia, Turkey and South Korea – On June 22, 2010, in 

U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Instrument Company (RMI), a 

Colorado corporation located in Lafayette, Colorado, pled guilty to one count of knowingly and 

willfully exporting defense articles without a license in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. 

The company was then immediately sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to forfeit 

$1,000,000. Between April 2005 and October 2007, RMI exported from the United States to 

Turkey, South Korea, the People’s Republic of China, and Russia, prisms and technical data 

related to various optics used in military applications, which were designated as defense articles 

on the U.S. Munitions List, without having first obtained the required export licenses. The 

military technology that RMI illegally exported consisted of guidance or targeting systems used 

in such military items as unmanned aerial vehicles, AC-130 gunships, Abrams tanks, TOW 

missile systems, and Bradley fighting vehicles. RMI was originally charged by criminal 

information on March 17, 2010. The case was investigated by ICE and DCIS.

• Illegal Oil Transaction with Iraq – On June 21, 2010, Muthanna Al-Hanooti pleaded guilty in 

the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of violating the International Emergency Economic 

Powers Act (IEEPA) for unlawfully accepting an allocation of two million barrels of Iraqi oil 

from the Government of Iraq in December 2002 without the required U.S. government license. 

Al-Hanooti was previously charged in a Feb. 13, 2008, indictment with conspiracy to act as an 

unregistered agent of the Government of Iraq, an IEEPA violation, and making false statements in 

connection with his alleged work on behalf of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. In March 2011, AlHanooti was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. This investigation was conducted by 

the FBI. 

• Fighter Jet Components to Iran – On June 17, 2010, Saeid Kamyari, an Iranian national, pleaded 

guilty in the Southern District of Alabama to attempting to illegally export U.S. fighter jet parts 

from the United States to Iran. Kamyari, along with defendant “Masun,” whose last name is 

unknown, were charged in a nine-count indictment on Jan. 28, 2010, with conspiracy, money 

laundering, smuggling, as well as violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act. Kamyari was arrested by federal agents in March 2010 upon 

his arrival in Miami. Kamyari and Masun have been actively working with the Iranian 

government to procure military items for the Iranian government. In November 2009, Kamyari

reached out to an undercover federal agent requesting pricing for a list of military aircraft parts to 

be sent to Iran. Thereafter, he sent four separate payments totaling more than $70,000 to a bank in 

Alabama as a down payment for the parts. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Satellite Hardware and Technology to Iran – On June 2, 2010, a federal grand jury in the 

District of Maryland returned an indictment charging Nader Modanlo, an American, and five 

Iranian citizens on charges of conspiring to illegally provide satellite hardware and technology to 

Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and money laundering. 

The indictment alleges that as a result of the conspiracy, an Iranian earth satellite equipped with a 

camera was launched into space in Russia on Oct. 27, 2005. According to the indictment, from 

January 2000 through November 27, 2007, the defendants concocted a scheme to evade the Iran 

trade embargo, by using sham companies to conceal Iranian involvement in prohibited activities 

and transactions. The indictment notes that some $10 million was wired from an overseas 

account to the account of a defendant in the United States in consideration for his assistance to 

Iran and the Iranians in brokering a satellite agreement with Russia and for his New York 

company providing telecommunications services in support of that agreement. Charged in the 

indictment are: Nader Modanlo, of Potomac, Maryland, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Iran; 

Hamid Malmirian; Reza Heidari; Mohammad Modares; Abdol Reza Mehrdad; and Sirous Naseri, 
52

all Iranian nationals. Nader Modanlo was arrested on June 8, 2010 in Maryland. The other 

defendants remain at large. The investigation was conducted by ICE and the IRS.

• Thermal Imaging Cameras to China – On May 14, 2010, Sam Ching Sheng Lee, part-owner and 

chief operations manager of Multimillion Business Associate Corporation ("MBA"), pleaded 

guilty in the Central District of California to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency 

Economic Powers for illegally exporting national security-controlled thermal imaging cameras to 

China. His nephew, Charles Yu Hsu Lee, pleaded guilty the same day to misprision of a felony 

for the same activity. Sam Lee was sentenced on Feb. 18, 2011 to 12 months in prison and a 

$10,000 fine, while Charles Lee was sentenced on Dec. 15, 2010 to 6 days in prison and a $3,000

fine. The Lees were arrested on Dec. 30, 2008 in Hacienda Heights, Ca, pursuant to a Dec. 16, 

2008 indictment charging them with conspiracy to export and exporting national securitycontrolled items without a license in violation of the IEEPA. The indictment alleged that the 

defendants, doing business as MBA, an import/export business located in Hacienda Heights, 

assisted persons in China illegally procure export controlled thermal-imaging cameras. During 

the period between April 2002 and July 2007, defendants allegedly exported a total of ten 

thermal-imaging cameras to China in circumvention of export laws. After being advised of strict 

export restrictions, Charles Lee allegedly purchased the cameras from U.S. suppliers for 

approximately $9,500 a piece by withholding the fact that the devices were destined to China. His 

uncle, Sam Lee, then received the devices and, through his company, arranged for their shipment 

to Shanghai, China without obtaining proper licenses. One of the recipients is alleged to be an 

employee of a company in Shanghai engaged in the development of infrared technology. The 

thermal-imaging cameras are controlled for export to China by the Department of Commerce for 

national security and regional stability reasons because of their use in a wide variety of military 

and civilian applications. This investigation was conducted by the EAGLE Task Force in the 

Central District of California. 

• U.S. Missile Components to Iran – On May 13, 2010, Yi-Lan Chen, aka Kevin Chen, of Taiwan, 

and his Taiwan corporation, Landstar Tech Company Limited, pleaded guilty in the Southern 

District of Florida to a three count criminal information charging them with illegally exporting 

dual-use commodities to Iran that have potential military applications. Chen was arrested in 

Guam on Feb. 3, 2010. According to court documents in the case, customers in Iran affiliated 

with that nation’s missile program sent orders by e-mail to Chen for specific goods. Chen then 

requested quotes, usually by e-mail, from U.S. businesses and made arrangements for the sale or 

shipment of the goods to one of several freight forwarders in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Once in 

Hong Kong or Taiwan, the goods were then shipped to Iran. Among the customers in Iran were 

buyers for Electro SANAM Industries, which serves as a front company for Aerospace Industries 

Organization in Iran and has been linked to Iranian ballistic missile programs. Another Iranian 

customer was the owner of the Noavaran Sooyab Sanat, Co., which is a division of Jahad 

Engineering Research Center. Jahad Engineering Research Center has been linked to chemical 

research and development facilities and has been listed as an entity of concern by the British 

government for the procurement of weapons of mass destruction. In one e-mail with an Iranian 

customer, Chen stated, “As you know we cannot tell USA this connector is for you. So we have 

to tell a white lie to USA that this is for our factory in Hong Kong.” Among the dual-use items 

that Chen caused to be shipped to Iran were 120 circular hermetic connectors and 8,500 glass-tometal seals. While the goods have commercial applications, they also can make a significant 

contribution to the military or nuclear potential of other nations. Agents learned of Chen’s efforts 

after he attempted to obtain and export to Iran some 2,000 detonators from a California company. 

On Aug. 27, 2010, Chen was sentenced to 42 months in prison, while Landstar Tech Company 

Limited was sentenced to one year probation. On Sept. 9, 2011, an amended sentence was issued 
53

for Yi-Lan Chan, and he was sentenced to time served, 2 years supervised release and a $300 

special assessment. The investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Commercial 747 Aircraft to Iran – On May 11, 2010, Balli Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of the 

U.K.-based Balli Group PLC, was sentenced in the District of Columbia to pay a $2 million fine 

and to serve a five-year corporate period of probation after pleading guilty on Feb. 5, 2010, to a 

two-count criminal information in connection with its illegal export of commercial Boeing 747 

aircraft from the United States to Iran. The $2 million fine, combined with a related $15 million 

civil settlement among Balli Group PLC, Balli Aviation Ltd., the U.S. Department of 

Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s 

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), represented one of the largest fines for an export 

violation in BIS history. Balli Aviation Ltd. conspired to export three 747 aircraft from the U.S. 

to Iran without the required export licenses. According to the criminal information, Balli 

Aviation Ltd., through its subsidiaries, the Blue Sky Companies, purchased U.S.-origin aircraft 

with financing obtained from an Iranian airline and caused these aircraft to be exported to Iran 

without obtaining the required U.S. government licenses. Further, Balli Aviation Ltd. entered 

into lease arrangements that permitted the Iranian airline to use the U.S.-origin aircraft for flights 

in and out of Iran. In addition, Balli Aviation Ltd. violated a Temporary Denial Order issued by 

BIS that prohibited the company from conducting any transaction involving any item subject to 

the Export Administration Regulations. The investigation was conducted by BIS and OFAC.

• $500 Million Forfeiture for Iran Embargo Violations and Other Charges – On May, 10, 2010, 

the former ABN AMRO Bank N.V., now named the Royal Bank of Scotland N.V., agreed to 

forfeit $500 million in connection with a conspiracy to defraud the United States, to violate the 

International Emergency Economic Powers Act and to violate the Trading with the Enemy Act, 

as well as a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. A criminal information was filed in the District of 

Columbia. The bank waived indictment, agreed to the filing of the information, and accepted and 

acknowledged responsibility for its conduct. ABN AMRO agreed to forfeit $500 million as part 

of a deferred prosecution agreement. From 1995 through December 2005, ABN AMRO assisted 

sanctioned countries and entities in Iran, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and elsewhere in evading U.S. laws 

by facilitating hundreds of millions of U.S. dollar transactions. The IEEPA and TWEA violations 

relate to ABN AMRO conspiring to facilitate illegal dollar transactions on behalf of financial 

institutions, including Bank Markazi and Bank Melli of Iran as well as other customers from Iran, 

Libya, the Sudan, Cuba and other sanctioned nations. ABN AMRO Bank offices and employees 

in the Netherlands, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere stripped mention of Iranian and 

Sudanese banks from international funds transfer instructions sent to the New York branch of the 

bank thereby causing and facilitating financial transactions for the benefit of the Iranian and 

Sudanese financial institutions. The investigation was conducted by the IRS and FBI.

• U.S. – Origin Tools to Libya – On March 9, 2010, Uni-Arab Engineering and Oil Field Services, 

a firm incorporated in the United Arab Emirates and operated in part by two naturalized U.S. 

citizens, Jaime Radi Mustafa and Nureddin Shariff Sehweil, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District 

of Louisiana to violating U.S. sanctions against Libya and was sentenced to one year inactive 

probation, a $60,000 fine, and $400 special assessment. According to the plea agreement, UniArab caused goods to be shipped from Texas to the Netherlands in 2001 and 2002, where they 

were repackaged and illegally shipped to Libya.

• BAE Systems PLC Pleads Guilty and Ordered to Pay $400 Million – On March 1, 2010, BAE 

Systems PLC (BAES), a multinational defense contractor with headquarters in the United 

Kingdom, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to conspiracy to defraud the United States, 
54

conspiracy to make false statements about its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance program, 

and conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and International Traffic in Arms 

Regulations (ITAR). BAES was sentenced on March 1, 2010 to a $400 million fine, 36 months 

probation, and a $400 assessment. With respect to the conspiracy to violate AECA, BAES 

admitted to making false statements and failing to make required disclosures to the U.S. 

government in connection with the administration of certain regulatory functions, including 

statements and disclosures related to applications for arms export licenses, as required by the 

AECA and ITAR. As part of the licensing scheme, applicants are required to identify associated 

commissions to the State Department- whether they are legitimate commissions or bribes - paid to 

anyone who helps secure the sales of defense materials. BAES admitted that, as part of the 

conspiracy, it knowingly and willfully failed to identify commissions paid to third parties for 

assistance in soliciting, promoting or otherwise securing sales of defense items in violation of the 

AECA and ITAR. In one instance, BAES caused the filing of false applications for export 

licenses for Gripen fighter jets to the Czech Republic and Hungary by failing to tell the export 

license applicant or the State Department of £19 million BAES paid to an intermediary with the 

high probability that it would be used to influence that tender process to favor BAES. The case 

was investigated by the FBI and ICE, with assistance by DCIS and the General Services 

Administration, Office of Inspector General.

• Semi-Automatic Pistols to Cayman Islands – On Feb. 23, 2010, a grand jury in the Southern 

District of Florida returned an indictment charging Junior Estiven with conspiracy to smuggle 

firearms, making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms, and possession 

of firearms with obliterated serial numbers. Estiven and others allegedly conspired to smuggle 

semi-automatic pistols to the Cayman Islands. Several other individuals were charged and 

pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme previously. David Gilbert Lyons, Mitchell Anthony 

Brown and Brittanio Jermie Watson were all indicted in the Southern District of Florida on May 

5, 2009 in connection with the attempted illegal export of firearms to the Cayman Islands and 

other charges. Lyons was sentenced to 57 months in prison, while Brown was sentenced to 37 

months in prison, and Walton was sentenced to 51 months in prison. In addition, Sheila Caraballo 

Madrigal was charged on Sept. 14, 2009 with conspiracy to smuggle firearms, conceal shipment 

of firearms and acquire firearms by making false statements. She later pleaded guilty and was 

sentenced to three years probation. The investigation was conducted by ICE and ATF.

• Electronics to Designated Terror Entity in Paraguay – On Feb. 19, 2010, federal authorities in 

the Southern District of Florida announced the indictment of four individuals and three Miami 

businesses on charges involving the illegal export of electronics to a U.S. designated terrorist 

entity in Paraguay. The defendants charged were Samer Mehdi, of Paraguay, Khaled T. Safadi, 

of Miami, Ulises Talavera, of Miami, Emilio Jacinto Gonzalez-Neira, of Paraguay, Cedar 

Distributors, Inc. (Cedar), a Miami-based firm owned by defendant Safadi, Transamerica Express 

of Miami, Inc. (Transamerica), a Miami-based firm owned by defendant Talavera, and Jumbo 

Cargo, Inc. (Jumbo), a Miami-based firm owned by defendant Gonzalez-Neira. All were indicted 

on charges of conspiracy, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and 

smuggling electronic goods from the United States to Paraguay. According to the indictment, 

from March 2007 through January 2008, freight-forwarders Talavera, through Transamerica, and 

Gonzalez-Neira, through Jumbo, exported Sony brand electronics, including Play station 2 

consoles and digital cameras, to Samer Mehdi, owner of Jomana Import Export, an electronics 

business located within the Galeria Page, a shopping center in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Safadi, 

through Cedar, was a distributor of the electronics to the freight-forwarders. Since Dec. 6, 2006, 

the shopping center known as Galeria Page in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, has been designated as 

a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity by the U.S. Treasury Department, on grounds that 

it serves as a source of fundraising for Hizballah in the Tri-Border Area and is managed and 
55

owned by Hizballah members in the Tri-Border Area. Consequently, any transaction or dealing 

by a U.S. person with Galeria Page is prohibited. The OFAC designation banned trade with 

Galeria Page and all tenants located therein. Gonzalez-Neira and Jumbo Cargo, Inc. pleaded 

guilty on Sept. 15, 2010 to conspiracy violations and were later sentenced to 1 year probation and 

1 year non-reporting probation, respectively. Defendants Safadi and Cedar Distributors, Inc. 

pleaded guilty on Oct. 1, 2010 to conspiracy violations. Talavera and Transamerica Express of 

Miami pleaded guilty to conspiracy violations on Oct. 20, 2010. On Jan. 24, 2011, Safadi, Cedar 

Distributors, Inc., Talavera and Transamerica Express of Miami were sentenced. Safadi was 

sentenced to 6 months probation. Talavera was sentenced to 1 year probation. Cedar Distributors 

and Transamerica Express were each sentenced to 3 years probation. Samer Mehdi is on fugitive 

status. The investigation was conducted by ICE FBI, CBP, BIS, OFAC, and U.S. Secret Service.

• Economic Espionage / Theft of Space Shuttle and Rocket Secrets for China – On Feb. 11, 2010 

former Rockwell and Boeing engineer Dongfan “Greg” Chung was sentenced to 188 months 

imprisonment and three years supervised release after his July 16, 2009 conviction in the Central 

District of California. Chung was convicted of charges of economic espionage and acting as an 

illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), for whom he stole restricted technology 

and Boeing trade secrets, including information related to the Space Shuttle program and the 

Delta IV rocket. According to the judge’s ruling, Chung served as an illegal agent of China for 

more than 30 years and kept more than 300,000 pages of documents reflecting Boeing trade 

secrets stashed in his home as part of his mission of steal aerospace and military trade secrets 

from Boeing to assist the Chinese government. Chung sent Boeing trade secrets to the PRC via 

the mail, via sea freight, via the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, and via a Chinese agent 

named Chi Mak. On several occasions, Chung also used the trade secrets that he misappropriated 

from Boeing to prepare detailed briefings that he later presented to Chinese officials in the PRC. 

Chung was originally arrested on Feb. 11, 2008, in Southern California after being indicted on 

eight counts of economic espionage, one count of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, one 

count of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, one count of obstruction of justice, and three 

counts of making false statements to the FBI. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and 

NASA.

• Chemical Purchasing Software to Iran – On Jan. 11, 2010, Ali Amirnazmi, of Berwyn, PA, was 

sentenced in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to 48 months in prison for his Feb. 13, 2009

conviction on one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers 

Act (IEEPA); three counts of violating IEEPA, three counts of making false statements; and three 

counts of bank fraud. Amirnazmi was also ordered to forfeit $64,000 and to pay $17,277 

restitution to Penn Liberty Bank. Amirnazmi, the owner of Trantech Consultants, Inc., in Pa.,

was charged by superseding indictment in October 2008 with crimes relating to his participation 

from 1996 to July 2008 in illegal business transactions and investments with companies located in 

Iran, including companies controlled in whole or in part by the government of Iran, as well as 

lying to federal officials about those transactions, and bank fraud. Evidence at trial revealed that 

Amirnazmi worked at the express direction of the highest echelons of the Iranian government, 

specifically President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his close advisors, to advance the Iranian 

petrochemical industry. Amirnazmi is a chemical engineer who, among other things, licensed to 

Iranian companies the use of a proprietary database and software system that he had developed. 

The software was designed to help buyers around the globe locate the best prices for various 

chemicals. Amirnazmi, a citizen of both the United States and Iran, was first indicted on July 25, 

2008. The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS.

• Military Equipment to Yemen, Libya & Other Locations – On Jan. 7, 2010, Ioannis 

Papathanassiou, of Vienna, Va., entered a guilty plea on behalf of his company, Taipan 
56

Enterprises, Ltd., in the Eastern District of Virginia for attempting to illegally broker the sale of 

weapons, night vision goggles and other military equipment to purchasers in Yemen, Libya, Chile

and other nations. Taipan Enterprises was ordered to pay a fine of $15,000. Court records indicate 

that Papathanassiou attempted to arrange the sale of Swiss-made machine pistols to a purchaser in 

Yemen, attempted to arrange the sale of Canadian night vision technology from Canada to Libya, 

attempted to arrange the sale of Canadian armored vehicles to the Chilean marine corps, 

attempted to arrange the sale of M4 rifles, gas grenades, armored vehicles and other military 

equipment to Chile, and attempted to arrange the sale of a number of military armored vehicles 

from a Belgian defense manufacturer to a Missouri-based company for final use in Vietnam. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and CBP.

• Firearms to Mexico – On Jan. 6, 2010, Daniel Bernardino was convicted in the Northern District 

of Texas on firearms and ammunition smuggling charges in connection with a nationwide 

investigation of the violent drug cartel, La Familia, and its efforts to smuggle firearms to Mexico 

in order to arm their personnel there. Seven individuals from the Fort Worth, TX, area were 

originally indicted along with Bernardino on firearms smuggling and related charges. They 

include Alberto Pulido, Juan Ramirez, Javier Rosales, Jesus Ortega, Gustavo Pulido, and Eduardo 

Flores. Although Alberto Pulido remains a fugitive, the other defendants have pleaded guilty for 

their roles in the conspiracy. Bernardino arrested on Oct. 21, 2009. In December 2008, he and 

others were stopped north of the Texas border in a caravan of vehicles, one of which contained 33 

firearms and 9,000 rounds of ammunition. On May 3, 2010, Defendants Ortega, Bernardino, and 

Gustavo Pulido were all sentenced. Defendant Ortega was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, 

Defendant Bernardino was sentenced to 78 months imprisonment. Defendant Pulido was 

sentenced to 48 months imprisonment. On April 5, 2010, Defendants Lozano, Flores and Ramirez 

were all sentenced. Defendant Lozano was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment. Defendant 

Flores was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment. Defendant Ramirez was sentenced to 120 

months imprisonment. This investigation was conducted by ATF and DEA.

• Firearms to Canada – On Dec. 18, 2009, Ugur Yildiz, a former suburban Chicago gun shop 

owner, was sentenced in the Northern District of Illinois to 71⁄2 years in prison for illegally 

exporting more than 200 firearms to Canada -- some of which were later used in violent crimes in 

Canada. Yildiz, of Park Ridge, Illinois, owned the Chicagoland Bells gun store. He was arrested 

and charged with violations of the Arms Export Control Act in a criminal complaint on June 19, 

2009. According to court documents filed in the case, since 2006, Canadian law enforcement 

recovered 25 firearms in Canada that were registered to Yildiz, and all but one of these guns were 

recovered during the execution of search warrants in connection with investigations of drug and 

violent crimes. Two guns registered to Yildiz were traced to attempted homicides in Canada,

according to court documents, including a .45 caliber Glock recovered on Sept. 22, 2006 pursuant 

to a shooting in Toronto. This case was investigated by ICE, ATF and DEA.

• Restricted Components to Iran – On Dec. 17, 2009, James Larrison, of Avondale, AZ, pleaded 

guilty in the District of Delaware to a one-count criminal information charging him with violating 

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. From August 2008, through February 2009, 

Larrison attempted to illegally export from the United States to Iran Hitachi JU-Z2 Junction Units 

(camera control box, 8-port multiple television camera control delegation switch). The charges 

result from an investigation launched after the seizure in October 2007 of a laptop computer from 

convicted Iranian procurement agent Amir Hossein Ardebili. Larrison was sentenced to probation 

on June 23, 2011 after providing substantial assistance to the government in its investigation of 

his former employer Aegis Electronic Group Inc, which entered into a deferred prosecution 

agreement with the government and paid a fine to the Treasury Department. This case was 

investigated by ICE. 
57

• Military Electronics for Radar, Fighter Jets, and Missiles to Iran -- On Dec. 2, 2009, criminal 

indictments were unsealed in the Districts of Delaware and Massachusetts relating to the 

prosecution of Iranian arms procurement agent Amir Hossein Ardebili. Defendant Ardebili pled 

guilty to these indictments on May 19, 2008. Ardebili pleaded guilty to multiple violations of the 

Arms Export Control Act, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, smuggling, 

conspiracy and money laundering. The charges result from a three year international undercover 

investigation which exposed Ardebili’s role as a prolific arms acquisitions agent for the 

government of Iran. During the investigation, Ardebili negotiated the purchase and illegal export 

of a number of military components, including: QRS-11 Gyro Chip Sensors, which are used in 

numerous advanced aircraft, missile, space and commercial applications; MAPCGM0003 Phase 

Shifters, which perform a key function in electronically steered antennae and have many 

applications including phased array radar, which is used in military target acquisition and missile 

guidance; and Digital Air Data Computer, which is a replacement for the computer installed on 

the U.S. F-4 fighter aircraft used by Iran that calculates flight parameters including altitude, air 

speed, static pressure, mach number, and true angle of attack. Ardebili’s negotiations with 

undercover agents culminated in a face-to-face meeting in the Republic of Georgia in October of 

2007, after which Ardebili was arrested and extradited to the United States in January 2008. On 

Dec. 14, 2009, Ardebili was sentenced to five years in prison, with credit for time served. He 

completed his prison term in February 2012 and was deported to Iran on March 14, 2012. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Anti-Aircraft Missiles and Machine Guns to Syria -- On Nov. 24, 2009, a grand jury in the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania returned an indictment charging Dani Nemr Tarraf and Douri 

Nemr Tarraf, with conspiring to illegally export anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) machine 

guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines), as well as M72 Light anti-armor weapons, Glock 

pistols, as well night vision equipment, from Philadelphia to the Port of Latakia, Syria. In 

addition, these two defendants and Hassan Mohamad Komeiha, and Hussein Ali Asfour — were 

charged with conspiring to transport stolen goods. Dani Nemr Tarraf and Ali Fadel Yahfoufi 

were also charged with conspiring to commit passport fraud. According to a criminal complaint

filed in the case, in or about mid-June 2009, Dani Tarraf asked whether an undercover law 

enforcement official (UC) could supply guided missiles and told the UC that he (Tarraf) wanted 

the UC to export approximately 10,000 “commando” machine guns [Colt M4 Carbines with short 

barrels] from the United States. On or about July 28, 2009, in Philadelphia, Tarraf paid the UC a 

deposit of approximately $20,000 toward the cost of purchasing FIM-92 Stinger missiles and 

approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines and shipping these items outside the United States to the 

Port of Latakia, Syria. Dani Tarraf was arrested on Nov. 21, 2009. The investigation was 

conducted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, ICE, IRS, Secret Service, DCIS, ATF, and 

other law enforcement agencies.

• Military & Commercial Aircraft Components to Iran – On Nov. 5, 2009, Laura WangWoodford, a U.S. citizen who served as a director of Monarch Aviation Pte Ltd., a Singapore 

company that imported and exported military and commercial aircraft components for more than 

20 years, was sentenced in the Eastern District of New York to 46 months in prison and ordered 

to forfeit $500,000 for conspiring to violate the U.S. trade embargo by exporting controlled 

aircraft components to Iran. On March 13, 2009, Wang-Woodford pled guilty to the charges. She 

was arrested on Dec. 23, 2007, at San Francisco International Airport after arriving on a flight 

from Hong Kong. She and her husband, Brian D. Woodford, a U.K. citizen who served as 

chairman and managing director of Monarch, were originally charged in a 20-count indictment on 

January 15, 2003. Brian Woodford remains a fugitive. A superseding indictment charging 

Wang-Woodford with operating Jungda International Pte. Ltd (“Jungda”), a Singapore-based 
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successor to Monarch, was returned on May 22, 2008. According to the superseding indictment, 

the defendants exported controlled U.S. aircraft parts from the U.S. to Monarch and Jungda in 

Singapore and Malaysia and then re-exported those items to companies in Tehran, Iran, without 

obtaining the required U.S. government licenses. The defendants also falsely listed Monarch and 

Jungda as the ultimate recipients of the parts on export documents filed with the U.S. 

government. The aircraft parts illegally exported to Iran include aircraft shields, shears, “o” 

rings, and switch assemblies, as well as U.S. military aircraft components, designed for use in 

Chinook military helicopters. At the time of her arrest, Wang-Woodford possessed catalogues 

from a Chinese company, the China National Precision Machinery Import and Export 

Corporation (“CPMIEC”), containing advertisements for surface-to-air missile systems and 

rocket launchers. CPMIEC has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department as a specially 

designated Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferator, based, in part, on CPMIEC’s history of 

selling military hardware to Iran. The investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Carbon-Fiber Material with Rocket & Spacecraft Applications to China – On Oct. 8, 2009, 

three individuals were sentenced in the District of Minnesota for illegally exporting highmodulus, carbon fiber material to the China Academy of Space Technology. Jian Wei Ding was 

sentenced to 46 months in prison. Kok Tong Lim was sentenced to just over one year of 

confinement because of his cooperation in the case, while Ping Cheng was sentenced to one year 

probation due to his cooperation. On March 20, 2009, Ding pleaded guilty to one count of 

conspiracy to violate the Export Administration Regulations. Cheng entered his plea on Feb. 13, 

2009 and Lim entered his plea on March 9, 2009. All three men were indicted on Oct. 28, 2008

for conspiring to illegally export to China controlled carbon-fiber material with applications in 

aircraft, rockets, spacecraft, and uranium enrichment process. The intended destination for some 

of the materials was the China Academy of Space Technology, which oversees research institutes 

working on spacecraft systems for the PRC government. For national security, nuclear 

proliferation and antiterrorism reasons, the U.S. government requires a license to export these 

carbon-fiber materials. Jian Wei Ding was a resident of Singapore and owned or was a affiliated 

with various Singaporean import/export companies, including Jowa Globaltech Pte Ltd, 

FirmSpace Pte Ltd, and Far Eastron Co. Pte Ltd. Kok Tong Lim was a resident of Singapore and 

once was affiliated with FirmSpace, Pte Ltd. Ping Cheng was a resident of New York and the sole 

shareholder of Prime Technology Corporation. This investigation was conducted by ICE and BIS.

• Sensitive Aircraft Components to Iran – On Sept. 24, 2009, Aviation Services International 

(ASI), a Netherlands-based aviation services company, its owner, Robert Kraaipoel, and his son 

Robert Neils Kraaipoel, pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to a one-count criminal 

information alleging conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 

(IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions Regulations. From about October 2005 to about October 

2007, the defendants received orders from customers in Iran for U.S.-origin goods, including 

various aircraft components that were restricted from being transshipped into Iran. The 

defendants then contacted companies in the United States and negotiated purchases of materials 

on behalf of Iranian customers. The defendants provided false end-user certificates to certain U.S. 

companies to conceal that customers in Iran would be the true recipients of the goods. The goods 

were routed to Iran through the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, and Cyprus. In 2006 

alone, Aviation Services obtained some 290 aircraft-related components from the U.S. and caused 

them to be shipped to Iran. Many of these U.S.-origin goods were sent to Iranian government 

agencies, Iranian procurement agencies or companies doing business in Iran. ASI agreed to pay a 

$100,000 fine and corporate probation for five years. On June 12, 2012, the Kraaipoels were 

sentenced to probation as a result of their cooperation in a number of investigations. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS, ICE, DCIS and FBI. 
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• Sighting Devices to Afghanistan and Taiwan – On Sept. 18, 2009, Aaron Henderson, doing 

business as Vahalla Tactical Supply, pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Iowa to a criminal 

information, arising from his illegal export of restricted sighting devices to Taiwan and 

Afghanistan without the required export licenses. Henderson was sentenced to time served and 

two years-supervised release. The investigation was conducted by BIS, ICE and the Bureau of 

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

• Restricted Integrated Circuits with Military Applications to China – On Aug. 3, 2009, William 

Chai-Wai Tsu, an employee of a Beijing-based military contracting company called Dimigit 

Science & Technology Co. Ltd, and the vice president of a Hacienda Heights, CA, front company 

called Cheerway, Inc., was sentenced in the Central District of California to 40 months in prison. 

Tsu illegally exported more than 400 restricted integrated circuits with applications in military 

radar systems to China over a 10-month period, according to court documents. These dual-use 

items are restricted for export for national security reasons. Tsu purchased many of the items 

from U.S.-distributors after falsely telling these U.S. companies that he was not exporting the 

circuits abroad. According to court documents, Tsu supplied restricted U.S. technology to several 

customers in China, including the “704 Research Institute,” which is known as the “Aerospace 

Long March Rocket Technology Company” and is affiliated with the state-owned China 

Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation. Tsu’s employer in China, Dimigit, boasted in

brochures that its mission was “providing the motherland with safe, reliable and advanced 

electronic technical support in the revitalization of our national military industry.” Tsu was 

indicted in the Central District of California on Feb. 6, 2009 on charges of violating the 

International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He later pleaded guilty to two federal counts of 

the indictment on March 13, 2009. This case was the product of an investigation by the Export 

and Anti-proliferation Global Law Enforcement (EAGLE) Task Force in the Central District of 

California, which includes BIS, ICE, FBI, CBP, Diplomatic Security Service and the 

Transportation Security Administration. 

• Restricted Thermal Imaging Technology to China – On July 27, 2009, Zhi Yong Guo, a resident 

of Beijing, was sentenced in the Central District of California to 60 months in prison, while Tah 

Wei Chao, also a resident of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Both were sentenced 

in connection with a plot to procure and illegally export thermal-imaging cameras to the People’s 

Republic of China without obtaining the required export licenses. Guo and Chao were indicted 

on federal charges on July 17, 2008. Chao pleaded guilty to three federal counts in July 2008. On 

Feb. 23, 2009, following a one-week trial, Guo was convicted of two federal counts. The case

related to ten cameras concealed in luggage destined for China in April 2008. The export of these

thermal-imaging cameras to China are controlled by the Department of Commerce for national 

security and regional stability reasons because of their use in a wide variety of civilian and 

military applications. In March 2008, Chao ordered 10 thermal-imaging cameras from FLIR 

Systems, Inc. for $53,000. Representatives from FLIR Systems repeatedly warned Chao that the 

cameras could not be exported without a license. Both Chao and Guo were arrested at Los 

Angeles International Airport in April 2008 after authorities recovered the ten cameras that had

been hidden in their suitcases. In addition to the 10 cameras intercepted by federal authorities, 

Chao admitted that, acting at the behest of Guo, he shipped three cameras to China in October 

2007. The evidence at trial showed that Guo, an engineer and a managing director of a technology 

development company in Beijing, directed Chao to obtain the cameras for Guo’s clients, the 

Chinese Special Police and the Special Armed Police. This case was the product of an 

investigation by the Export and Anti-proliferation Global Law Enforcement (EAGLE) Task Force 

in the Central District of California, including BIS, ICE, FBI, CBP, DSS, and TSA.
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• Military Technical Data on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to China – On July 1, 2009, Dr. John 

Reece Roth was sentenced in the Eastern District of Tennessee to 48 months in prison, two years 

supervised release and a $1,700 assessment for illegally exporting sensitive military technical 

data related to a U.S. Air Force contract. Roth, a former Professor Emeritus at the University of 

Tennessee, was convicted on Sept. 2, 2008 of 15 counts of violating the Arms Export Control 

Act, one count of conspiracy, and one count of wire fraud. Roth had illegally exported military 

technical data relating to plasma technology designed to be deployed on the wings of Unmanned 

Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or “drones” operating as a weapons or surveillance systems. The illegal 

exports involved technical data related to an Air Force research contract that Roth provided to 

foreign nationals from China and Iran. In addition, Roth carried multiple documents containing 

controlled military data with him on a trip to China and caused other controlled military data to 

be e-mailed to an individual in China. On Aug. 20, 2008, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, Inc 

(AGT), a privately-held plasma technology company in Tennessee, also pleaded guilty to charges 

of illegally exporting U.S. military data about drones to a citizen of China in violation of the 

Arms Export Control Act. AGT was sentenced on Feb. 12, 2010 to a $4,000 assessment and a 

$25,000 fine. Roth and AGT were first charged on May 20, 2008. In a related case, on April 15, 

2008, Daniel Max Sherman, a physicist who formerly worked at AGT, pleaded guilty to an 

information charging him with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act in connection 

with this investigation. Sherman was later sentenced to 14 months in prison on Aug. 10, 2009 

after cooperating in the investigation. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE, U.S. Air 

Force Office of Special Investigations, DCIS and BIS. 

• Missiles & Other Arms to Colombian Terror Organization – On July 1, 2009, Palestinian born 

businessman Tareq Mousa al-Ghazi was sentenced in the Southern District of New York to 25 

years in prison after his March 17, 2009 conviction for conspiring with Syrian arms dealer, 

Monzer Al-Kassar, and others in a plot to sell surface-to-air missiles, 4,000 grenades, and nearly 

9,000 assault rifles to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, a designated 

terrorist organization in Colombia. Al-Ghazi was found guilty of conspiracy to murder U.S. 

officers and employees, conspiracy to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and conspiracy to 

provide material support to terrorists. Al-Ghazi’s co-defendants, Monzer al-Kassar and Luis 

Felipe Moreno Godoy, were both convicted at trial on Nov. 20, 2008 in connection with the same 

conspiracy and were sentenced on Feb. 24, 2009 to 30 years imprisonment and 25 years 

imprisonment, respectively. In June 2007, Al Kassar was arrested in Spain, while Moreno and El 

Ghazi were arrested in Romania pursuant to a May 29, 2007 indictment alleging that they agreed 

to sell millions of dollars worth of surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 

ammunition, and machine guns to the FARC, between February 2006 and May 2007. Al Kassar 

also offered to send 1,000 men to fight with the FARC against U.S. military officers in Colombia. 

On June 13, 2008, Al Kassar arrived in New York after being extradited from Spain. Since the 

early 1970s, Al Kassar has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed factions 

engaged in violent conflicts around the world. Some of these factions have included known 

terrorist organizations, such as the Palestinian Liberation Front, the goals of which included 

attacking United States interests and United States nationals. The investigation was conducted by 

the Drug Enforcement Administration, Spanish National Police and Romanian Border Police

• Military Night Vision Technology to China – On July 1, 2009, Bing Xu, of Nanjing, China, was 

sentenced in the District of New Jersey to 22 months in prison followed by two years of 

supervised release after pleading guilty on Feb. 24, 2009, to conspiracy to illegally export 

military-grade night vision technology to China. Xu, a manager at Everbright Science and 

Technology, Ltd, a company in Nanjing, China, admitted that he conspired with others at 

Everbright to purchase certain night-vision technology from a company in the United States, 

which required a license from the State Department for export. Xu admitted that he and others at 
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Everbright first attempted to obtain the necessary export license for the night-vision equipment. 

When the license application was denied by the Department of State, Xu agreed with others at 

Everbright to take steps to export the night-vision optical equipment illegally. Xu has been in 

custody since his arrest in on October 2007 pursuant to a criminal complaint. Xu arrived in New 

York on Oct. 26, 2007 from China a day after his Chinese employer wire transferred $14,080 to 

agents as payment for the purchase of the equipment. The investigation was conducted by ICE 

and the DCIS.

• Restricted Nuclear Materials to Foreign Government – On June 18, 2009, Roy Lynn Oakley, 

of Harriman, Tenn., was sentenced in the Eastern District of Tennessee to six years in prison for 

unlawful disclosure of restricted data under the Atomic Energy Act in connection with his efforts 

to sell materials used in the production of highly enriched uranium to a foreign government. 

Oakley pleaded guilty to this offense on Jan. 26, 2009. Oakley had worked as a contract 

employee at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which was 

previously a Department of Energy facility that produced highly enriched uranium. While 

employed at ETTP, Oakley stole restricted nuclear materials from the facility and offered them 

for sale to the French government. The French government officials did not pursue the purchase 

of these items. The FBI launched an undercover investigation posing as an agent of the foreign 

government and arrested Oakley after he offered them the nuclear materials in exchange for 

$200,000 cash. The materials involved were pieces of equipment known as “barrier” and 

associated hardware items that play a crucial role in the production of highly enriched uranium. 

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Department of Energy.

• Fighter Jet and Military Helicopter Components to Iran – On June 11, 2009, Traian 

Bujduveanu was sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 35 months in prison followed by 

three years supervised release for his role in a conspiracy to illegally export military and dual-use 

aircraft parts to Iran. Bujduveanu appeared on behalf of himself and his now defunct corporation, 

Orion Aviation Corp., in federal court to announce his guilty plea on April 2, 2009. 

Bujduveanu’s co-defendant, Hassan Keshari, and his corporation, Kesh Air International, pleaded 

guilty in January 2009 to charges of conspiring to illegally export military and commercial 

aircraft components to Iran. Keshari was sentenced to 17 months in prison on May 14, 2009. On 

July 3, 2008, Keshari, Kesh Air International, as well as Bujduveanu, and his company Orion 

Aviation, were indicted for their participation in a conspiracy to export U.S.-made military and 

dual-use aircraft parts to Iran. In June 2008, agents arrested Keshari at Miami International 

Airport as he walked off a flight from Atlanta. Bujduveanu was arrested at his Plantation, Florida, 

home on June 21, 2008. Since August 2006, Keshari and Bujduveanu have allegedly procured 

U.S.-made military aircraft parts for buyers in Iran and have illegally shipped the parts to a 

company in Dubai, UAE, for shipment to buyers in Iran. Keshari allegedly received the orders for 

specific parts by e-mail from buyers in Iran. Keshari then requested quotes, usually by e-mail, 

from Bujduveanu and made arrangements with Bujduveanu for the sale and shipment of the parts 

to a company in Dubai. From Dubai, the parts were then shipped on to Iran. Keshari and 

Bujduveanu are alleged to have obtained and illegally shipped to buyers in Iran parts for the CH53 military helicopter, the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, and the AH-1 attack helicopter. Keshari is also 

alleged to have requested quotes for other parts for other military aircraft, including F-4 Phantom 

aircraft. This investigation was conducted by BIS, ICE, and DCIS.

• Thermal Imaging Cameras to China – On June 9, 2009, a federal grand jury in the Southern 

District of Ohio indicted Hing Shing Lau, also known as Victor Lau, a foreign national living in 

Hong Kong, Peoples Republic of China, on charges of trying to buy 12 infrared thermal imaging 

cameras from a Dayton-area company in order to illegally export the cameras to Hong Kong and 

China. The indictment alleges that Lau tried to buy 12 thermal imaging cameras manufactured in 
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Texas by contacting a company in the Dayton area. On three occasions, he wired transferred a 

total of $39,514 from Hong Kong to the U.S. as partial payment for the cameras. The indictment 

charges Lau with two counts of violating export control laws and four counts of money 

laundering. Canadian authorities arrested Lau on June 3, 2009, at the Toronto International 

Airport pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant issued by U.S. authorities. The investigation was 

conducted by the FBI, and BIS, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of State. 

• Stolen Military Optics Sold to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan via Internet – On June 1, 2009, 

in the Southern District of West Virginia, former U.S. Marines Timothy Oldani and Joseph 

Oldani were ordered to serve five months in prison and pay $52,872 in restitution, and 21 months 

in prison and $72,013 in restitution, respectively, for conspiring to steal military night vision 

optics and illegally export them from the United States. On Feb. 2, 2009, the Oldani brothers 

pleaded guilty. Joseph admitted that while on active duty with the Marines, he stole military 

optics from his station in Georgia and transported them to his brother Timothy in West Virginia, 

where Timothy sold the stolen items to overseas purchasers on the Internet, primarily via eBay. 

The pair sold miniature night vision sights and target pointer illuminators via the Internet to 

purchasers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. The investigation was conducted by DCIS and 

ICE.

• Amplifiers & Missile Target Acquisition Technology to China – On May 14, 2009, Joseph 

Piquet, the owner and President of AlphaTronX, a company in Port St. Lucie, Fla., that produces 

electronic components, was sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 60 months in prison 

followed by two years supervised release. On March 5, 2009, he was convicted of seven counts 

arising from a conspiracy to purchase military electronic components from Northrop Grumman 

Corporation, and to ship them to Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China without first 

obtaining required export licenses under the Arms Export Control Act and the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act. Among those items involved in the conspiracy were highpower amplifiers designed for use by the U.S. military in early warning radar and missile target 

acquisition systems, as well as low noise amplifiers that have both commercial and military use. 

Piquet was first indicted on June 5, 2008, along with his company, AlphaTronX, Inc, as well as 

Thompson Tam, and Ontime Electronics Technology Limited. Tam is a director of Ontime 

Electronics, an electronics company in China. On March 2, 2009, the Court ordered the dismissal 

of the indictment against AlphaTronX. This investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Military Night Vision Goggles to Italy – On May 12, 2009, Rigel Optics, Inc. was sentenced in 

the Southern District of Iowa to pay a $90,000 fine and a $400 special assessment for illegally 

exporting military night vision goggles to Italy. Rigel’s owner, Donald Wayne Hatch, was 

sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for making false statements in 

connection with the illegal export. On July 31, 2008, the defendants pleaded guilty to these 

violations. The defendants were indicted on June 24, 2008 for illegally exporting military night 

vision systems. The case was investigated by ICE and BIS.

• Rocket / Space Launch Technical Data to China – On April 7, 2009, Shu Quan-Sheng, a native 

of China, naturalized U.S. citizen and PhD physicist, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for 

illegally exporting space launch technical data and defense services to the People’s Republic of 

China (PRC) and offering bribes to Chinese government officials. Shu pleaded guilty on Nov. 17, 

2008, in the Eastern District of Virginia to a three-count criminal information. He was arrested on 

Sept. 24, 2008. He was the President, Secretary and Treasurer of AMAC International, a hightech company located in Newport News, Va., and with an office in Beijing, China. Shu provided 

the PRC with assistance in the design and development of a cryogenic fueling system for space 
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launch vehicles to be used at the heavy payload launch facility located in the southern island 

province of Hainan, PRC. The Hainan facility will house launch vehicles designed to send space 

stations and satellites into orbit, as well as provide support for manned space flight and future 

lunar missions. Shu also illegally exported to the PRC technical data related to the design and 

manufacture of a “Standard 100 M3 Liquid Hydrogen (LH) 2 Tank. In addition, Shu offered 

approximately $189,300 in bribes to government officials with the PRC’s 101 Institute to induce 

the award of a hydrogen liquefier project to a French company he represented. In January 2007, 

the $4 million hydrogen liquefier project was awarded to the French company that Shu 

represented. This investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE, BIS and DCIS.

• Military Aircraft Components to Iran – On April 2, 2009, eleven defendants were indicted in the 

Southern District of Florida on charges of participating in a conspiracy to export U.S.-made 

military aircraft parts to Iran. On April 3, 2009, federal agents arrested defendant Baktash 

Fattahi, an Iranian national and legal U.S. resident, at his residence in Lancaster, Calif. The other 

ten defendants charged in the indictment are Amir Hosein Atabaki, an Iranian national; 

Mohammad Javad Mohammad Esmaeil, an Iranian national; Abbas Haider, an Indian citizen 

residing in Dubai; Mohammed Javid Yahya Saboni, an Iranian national residing in Dubai; Reza 

Zahedi Pour, an Iranian national; Mahdi Electronic Trading Co, an Iranian business; Planet 

Commercial Brokerage, a Dubai business; Raht Aseman Co, Ltd, an Iranian business; Sahab 

Phase, an Iranian business; and Sea Speed UAE, a Dubai business. According to the indictment, 

the defendants conspired to and did export 13 different types of military aircraft parts to Iran by 

way of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Among the aircraft parts the defendants are alleged to have 

obtained and illegally shipped to buyers in Iran are parts for the F-5 (“Tiger”) Fighter Jet, the Bell 

AH-1 (“Cobra”) Attack Helicopter, the CH-53 Military Helicopter, the F-14 (“Tomcat”) Fighter 

Jet, and the UH-1 (“Huey”) Military Helicopter. According to the Indictment, defendants in Iran 

sent orders by email to a co-conspirator in Novato, Calif., for specific aircraft parts. The coconspirator in Calif. then requested quotes, usually by e-mail, from another co-conspirator in 

Plantation, Fla., and made arrangements with that co-conspirator in Plantation for the sale and 

shipment of the parts to one of several defendants in Dubai. From Dubai, the parts were then 

shipped on to Iran. On March 10, 2010, Baktash Fattahi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate 

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by exporting military and commercial aircraft 

parts to Iran and was sentenced to 35 months in prison on July 20, 2010. This investigation was 

conducted by ICE, DCIS, Diplomatic Security Service, with assistance from OFAC and State 

Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

• Military Aircraft Parts to Israel – On April 2, 2009, Stuart Wax pleaded guilty in the District of 

Connecticut to a one-count criminal information charging him with making a false statement in 

an export control document. Wax entered the plea both for himself and on behalf of his company, 

M.M.M. Wheels, Inc. In 2003, Wax exported parts used in the F-4 fighter jet to be sent to a 

company in Israel without the required license from State Department. Wax indicated on the 

shipping documents that the box contained “plumbing parts for repair,” although he knew the 

contents actually were parts for military aircraft. On Sept. 10, 2009, Wax and M.M.M. Wheels, 

Inc., were sentenced to one year probation apiece. This investigation was conducted by ICE, 

DCIS, and BIS agents.

• Thermal Imaging Cameras to South Korea – On March 25, 2009, David Lee plead guilty in the 

Northern District of Illinois to a one count indictment charging that he illegally exported thermal 

imaging cameras to South Korea without obtaining the required export license. Lee, the owner of 

Lucena Technology, Inc., an export company in Park Ridge, Ill., exported seven thermal imaging 

cameras to South Korea in June 2007 without obtaining the required U.S. Department of 
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Commerce export license. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Lee agreed to forfeit $59,500 

which represents the proceeds from the sale of the cameras. Lee was originally indicted on Dec. 

16, 2008. On June 29, 2009, Lee was sentenced to two years probation and a $3,000 fine. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

• Aircraft Engines and Components to Iranian Military – On March 24, 2009, a 25-count 

indictment was unsealed in the District of Columbia charging Mac Aviation Group, a trading 

company in Ireland, and three of its officers with purchasing aircraft engines and components 

from U.S. firms and illegally exporting these components to Iran via Malaysia and the United 

Arab Emirates. Among the alleged recipients of these goods was the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing 

Industrial Company (HESA), a military entity designated by the U.S. for its role in Iran’s nuclear 

and ballistic missile program, as well as Iran Aircraft Industries (IACI). The three Mac Aviation 

officers charged in the indictment, which was filed on July 22, 2008, are Thomas McGuinn, his 

son, Sean McGuinn, and Sean Byrne. According to the indictment, the defendants purchased 17 

aircraft engines from Rolls-Royce in Indiana and caused them to be exported to a publishing 

company in Malaysia, and later shipped on to HESA in Iran. The indictment also alleges that the 

defendants purchased 50 aircraft components known as “5th Stage vanes” from the United States 

and illegally exported them to Iran, and also obtained various U.S.-origin aircraft bolts, which 

they routed through a trading company in the United Arab Emirates to Iran. The defendants are 

alleged to have worked with Hossein Ali Khoshnevisrad and his Tehran business, Ariasa, AG, in 

purchasing some of these components for Iran. Khoshnevisrad was arrested on March 14, 2009 in 

San Francisco on federal export violations. This case was investigated by ICE and BIS.

• Sensitive U.S. Technology to Iranian Missile & Nuclear Entities -- On March 20, 2009, Iranian 

national and resident Majid Kakavand was arrested in France pursuant to a provisional U.S. arrest 

warrant issued in the Northern District of California. An April 7, 2009 indictment charges 

Kakavand and two co-defendants, Amir Gasemi and Alex Ramzi, with overseeing an 

international network that allegedly purchased thousands of military and commercial items from 

U.S. companies and illegally exported these goods to Iran via Malaysia. The alleged recipients of 

these goods included two Iranian military entities designated by the United States for their role in 

Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. According to court documents, Kakavand served as 

a director of a company in Malaysia called Evertop Services Sdn Bhd, that he and others created 

to procure goods from the United States and Europe for export to Iran. Gasemi was also a 

director of Evertop Services, while Ramzi served as the purchasing supervisor. Evertop Services’ 

primary customers in Iran were two Iranian military entities, Iran Electronics Industry (IEI), and 

Iran Communication Industries (ICI), both of which were designated in 2008 by the United States 

for their role in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Furthermore, IEI was listed by the 

European Union as an entity linked to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or Iran’s 

development of nuclear weapon delivery systems. Using Evertop Services, Kakavand and his-codefendants allegedly purchased products for Iran from U.S. companies in several states, including 

California, Alabama, Florida, Washington, and New Jersey. Kakavand has allegedly exported 

more than 30 shipments of goods from the United States to Iran since February 2006. These 

shipments contained electronic and avionic components, including capacitors, spectrometers, 

resistors, sensors, connectors, and airborne antennae. Kakavand allegedly concealed from the 

U.S. companies that the ultimate end-users of these products were in Iran, and at no time did he 

have a license to export or re-export goods to Iran. For example, in one transaction, Kakavand 

allegedly purchased 41,900 radiall connectors from a company in California and, in January 

2008, wired $51,425 to the firm as payment for the goods. The affidavit indicates that these 

goods were exported from the United States to Evertop Services in Malaysia, then re-exported to 

ICI in Iran. In other transactions spelled out in the affidavit, Kakavand used similar techniques to 

illegally export sensors, inductors and other materials to Iran. On May 5, 2010, the U.S. 
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extradition request for Kakavand was denied by a French court. Kakavand was released by 

French authorities and returned to Iran. This investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Aircraft Engines and Advanced Surveillance Cameras to Iranian Military -- On March 14, 

2009, Hossein Ali Khoshnevisrad, the general manager of Ariasa, AG in Tehran, Iran, and 

Skylife Worldwide Sdn. Bhd, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was arrested in San Francisco pursuant 

to a sealed criminal complaint charging him with purchasing helicopter engines and advanced 

aerial cameras for fighter bombers from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran using 

companies in Malaysia, Ireland and the Netherlands. Among the alleged recipients of these U.S. 

goods was an Iranian military firm that has since been designated by the United States for being 

owned or controlled by entities involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. The 

criminal complaint, which was filed under seal in the District of Columbia on Aug. 1, 2008, 

charged Khoshnevisrad with two counts of unlawfully exporting U.S. goods to Iran and two 

counts of conspiracy to unlawfully export U.S. goods to Iran in violation of the International 

Emergency Economic Powers Act. According to court documents, from Jan. 2007 through Dec.

2007, Khoshnevisrad and Ariasa caused Mac Aviation Group, a trading company in Ireland, to 

purchase 17 model 250 turbo-shaft helicopter engines from Rolls-Royce Corp. in Indiana for 

$4.27 million. Mac Aviation allegedly concealed from Rolls-Royce the end user of the engines, 

and ultimately 15 of these engines were exported from the U.S. to Iran via Malaysia or Germany. 

Among the recipients in Iran was the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, known as

HESA, which was designated by the United States for being controlled by Iran’s Ministry of 

Defense and Armed Forces Logistics and providing support to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard 

Corps. According to the complaint, Khoshnevisrad and Ariasa also caused to be exported to Iran 

10 aerial panorama cameras from the United States. These cameras were designed for the U.S. 

Air Force for use on bombers, fighters and surveillance aircraft, including the F-4E Phantom 

fighter bomber, which is currently used by the Iranian military. According to the affidavit, in 

2006, Khoshnevisrad instructed Aviation Services International, B.V., (ASI) a Dutch aviation 

parts company, to place an order for 10 of these cameras with a U.S. company located in 

Pennsylvania and to ship them to an address in Iran. According to the affidavit, ASI ordered the 

aerial panorama cameras from the Pennsylvania firm, falsely stating that the Netherlands would 

be the final destination for the cameras. Khoshnevisrad ultimately pleaded guilty on July 1, 2009, 

to a two-count information charging him with conspiracy to export goods (the Rolls Royce 

engines) to an embargoed nation and illegally exporting defense articles (aerial panorama 

cameras) to Iran. On June 2, 2010, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for each count, to 

run concurrently. This investigation was conducted by BIS, FBI, ICE and DCIS.

• Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Components to China -- On March 12, 2009, a federal 

grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment charging Yaming Nina Qi Hanson, 

her husband Harold Dewitt Hanson (an employee at Walter Reed Army Medical Center), and a 

Maryland company, Arc International, LLC, with illegally exporting miniature Unmanned Aerial 

Vehicle (UAV) Autopilots to a company in the People’s Republic of China. The UAV 

components are controlled for export to China for national security reasons. According to court 

documents, beginning in 2007, the Hansons began attempting to acquire the autopilots from a 

Canadian manufacturer in order to re-export them to Xi’an Xiangyu Aviation Technical Group in 

China. Qi Hanson initially represented that the autopilots would be used for a model airplane 

civilian flying club in China. When Canadian company officials questioned the utility of 

autopilots – designed for use on unmanned aircraft – for flying club hobbyists, Qi Hanson 

claimed that autopilots would be used on US aircraft to record thunderstorm and tornado 

developments and ice-pack melting rates in the arctic. On or about August 7, 2008, after having 

fraudulently taken delivery of 20 of these autopilots (valued at $90,000), Qi Hanson boarded a 
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plane in the United States bound for Shanghai, and hand-delivered the items to Xi’an Xiangyu 

Aviation Technical Group in China. Both Hansons ultimately pleaded guilty on Nov. 13, 2009 to 

felony false statement violations. On Feb. 3, 2010, Harold Dewitt Hanson was sentenced to 24 

months imprisonment, while his wife, Yaming Nina Qi Hanson was sentenced to time served. 

The investigation was conducted by BIS and FBI.

• 3,500 Military Night Vision Goggles to Iranian military – On March 6, 2009, Shahrazad Mir 

Gholikhan was sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 63 months in prison for brokering 

defense articles to Iran and other export violations in connection with an effort by she and her 

husband, Mahmoud Seif, to illegally procure 3,500 sets of Generation III military night vision 

goggles from the United States for Iran’s military and police forces. Gholikhan was convicted of 

the charges on Dec. 19, 2008. Gholikhan and her husband were first arrested in 2004 in Vienna, 

Austria, after a meeting with undercover law enforcement officials in which they received the 

first sample shipment of U.S. night vision goggles destined for Iran. After her arrest, Gholikhan 

told authorities that she and her husband were not allowed to transport the items from Austria to 

Iran, but that the Iranian Embassy in Austria was to organize the shipment of night vision goggles 

to Iran. Austrian authorities subsequently released the couple and they returned to Iran. Seif 

remains a fugitive. Gholikhan was arrested by U.S. authorities in December 2007 upon her arrival 

in the United States. She later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. However, she 

subsequently withdrew the plea after a dispute over her sentence and represented herself at a new 

trial in 2008, where she was convicted of three of six counts. This investigation was conducted by 

ICE, DCIS, and Austrian law enforcement.

• Pump Components to Iran – On Feb. 5, 2009, two German nationals and a German company 

were indicted in the District of Massachusetts for conspiring to illegally export pump parts worth 

more than $200,000 to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. 

According to the indictment, Hans Schneider and Christof Schneider conspired with an individual 

in Jordan to obtain pump parts from a U.S. company for centrifugal sulphuric acid and sulphur 

pumps located in Iran. The pump parts would be delivered to Germany and re-exported to Iran by 

the defendants via their company, Schneider Gmbh. The case was investigated ICE and BIS.

• Restricted Electronic Components to China – On Jan. 20, 2009, Michael Ming Zhang and 

Policarpo Coronado Gamboa were arrested pursuant to indictments in the Central District of 

California charging them with separate schemes involving the illegal export of controlled U.S. 

electronic items to China and the illegal trafficking of counterfeit electronic components from 

China into the United States. Zhang was the president of J.J. Electronics, a Rancho Cucamonga, 

CA, business, while Gamboa owned and operated Sereton Technology, Inc., a Foothill Ranch, 

CA, business. Zhang allegedly exported to China dual-use electronic items that have uses in U.S. 

Army battle tanks. He also allegedly imported and sold in the United States roughly 4,300 Cisco 

electronic components bearing counterfeit marks from China. Gamboa is charged with conspiring 

with Zhang to import Sony electronic components with counterfeit marks from China for 

distribution in the United States. On July 9, 2009, Gamboa pleaded guilty one count of the 

indictment and was later sentenced to 5 years probation and was ordered to pay $13,600

restitution to Sony Electronics. On July 6, 2009, Zhang pleaded guilty to count one in each of the 

indictments. The case was investigated by the FBI, BIS, DCIS, ICE, the U.S. Postal Inspection 

Service, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, in conjunction with the EAGLE Task 

Force in the Central District of California.

• Night Vision Technology to Singapore – On Jan. 15, 2009, Thomas J. Loretz was indicted in the 

District of Massachusetts for illegally exporting defense articles and making false statements in 
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connection with the illegal export of sophisticated night vision technology to Singapore. 

Specifically, Loretz was charged with illegally exporting to Singapore hundreds of Imaging 

Grade Micro-Channel Plates and Premium Grade Micro-Channel Plates, which are used for 

military night vision optics. Loretz allegedly submitted false shipper’s export documents to the 

government stating that the plates were commercial. Loretz pleaded guilty to four counts of the 

indictment on March 8, 2010. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Military Night Vision Systems to Vietnam -- On Dec. 16, 2008, federal authorities arrested Liem 

Duc Huynh pursuant to a December 3, 2008 indictment in the Central District of California

charging him and two other defendants Dan Tran Dang and George Ngoc Bui with Arms Export 

Control Act violations. Dang is expected to make his initial court appearance in January 2009, 

while Bui remains a fugitive. According to the indictment, the defendants ran an export business

called Professional Security, out of a Huntington Beach, California, residence, which illegally 

shipped at least 55 state-of-the-art night vision goggles to Vietnam in violation of the Arms 

Export Control Act. The three men are accused of conspiring to illegally ship Generation 3 Night 

Vision Goggles manufactured by ITT Industries to Vietnam. Because the goggles are classified 

as a “defense article” on the U.S. Munitions List, written permission must be obtained from the 

U.S. Department of State to legally export them. The charges against the men stem from an 

undercover investigation by ICE, the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and BIS.

• Software Stolen From Nuclear Plant to Iran – On Dec. 16, 2008, Mohammad Reza Alavi, a 

former employee of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona, was sentenced in the 

District of Arizona to 15 months in prison for illegally accessing a protected computer and for 

transportation of stolen software. On June 25, 2008, Alavi pleaded guilty to transporting stolen 

property in interstate commerce, in connection with his theft of software belonging to the Arizona 

nuclear plant that was valued at $400,000. On May 28, 2008 a jury also convicted Alavi of 

unauthorized access to a protected computer. Alavi served as a software engineer in the Simulator 

Support Group at the nuclear plant, which maintained a simulator system to train control room 

employees on the operation of nuclear reactors. The simulator system utilizes software to 

replicate current reactor status at Palo Verde allowing an operator to artificially create various 

incidents to train employees on safety and protocol procedures. The government presented 

evidence at trial that, after Alavi gave Palo Verde notice of his intent to terminate employment, he 

installed this software on his personal laptop without permission of Palo Verde. Alavi admitted 

that he took the software to Iran for use in future employment in the nuclear industry. Alavi’s 

conduct was uncovered when he accessed the software vendor’s website from Iran and obtained a 

code which allowed the software to be unlocked and activated. Alavi was indicted on April 12, 

2007, following his arrest that month upon returning to the United States. The FBI conducted the 

investigation.

• Guns to Canada – On December 15, 2008, Kurt Carter was sentenced in the District of Maine to 

31 months imprisonment and two years of supervised release for his role in a conspiracy to export 

firearms without a license to Canada. Over the course of 2005 and 2006, Carter, a U.S. citizen, 

knowingly and willfully made a series of straw purchases for a Canadian buyer who smuggled 

guns across the northern border. Those guns were later connected to drug trafficking and gang 

violence in Canada. Carter pled guilty on September 24, 2007 to one count of conspiracy to 

violate the Arms Export Control Act. This investigation was conducted by the ATF, ICE, and 

local law enforcement.

• Military Night Vision Equipment to Hizballah -- On Dec. 12, 2008, in the Eastern District of 

Michigan, Fawzi Assi was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for attempting to provide 
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material support to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization. Assi’s offense conduct took place 

in 1998, when he attempted to board an airplane at Detroit Metro Airport with restricted military 

items destined for two men in Lebanon whom he believed to be members of Hizballah.

Specifically he attempted to illegally export night vision goggles, global positioning satellite 

modules, and a thermal imaging camera. Assi pled guilty on Nov. 29, 2007. Assi had been a 

fugitive until he voluntarily surrendered to the FBI in Lebanon and was flown to the United States

on May 17, 2004. The case was investigated by the FBI and ICE.

• Stolen Trade Secrets to Chinese Nationals – On Nov. 21, 2008, Fei Ye and Ming Zhong were 

sentenced in the Northern District of California to one year in prison each, based in part on their 

cooperation, after pleading guilty on Dec. 14, 2006 to charges of economic espionage for 

possessing trade secrets stolen from two Silicon Valley technology companies. The pair admitted 

that their company was to have provided a share of any profits made on sales of the stolen chips 

to Chinese entities. The case marked the first convictions in the nation for economic espionage. 

They were first indicted on Dec. 4, 2002. The investigation was conducted by ICE, FBI and CBP.

• Stolen Military Night Vision Systems to Hong Kong – On Oct. 29, 2008, a criminal complaint 

was filed in the District of Hawaii against six U.S. Marines based at Kane’ohe Bay, Hawaii, for 

conspiring to illegally export stolen military night vision. Ryan Mathers, Charles Carper, Ronald 

William Abram, Jason Flegm, Mark Vaught, and Brendon Shultz were each charged with 

conspiracy to smuggle goods out of the United States. According to the complaint, the 

investigation began when agents learned that one of the defendants was selling stolen U.S. 

military night vision equipment on the Internet via eBay. A cooperating defendant subsequently 

purchased several night vision systems from the defendants, representing they would be illegally 

exported to Hong Kong. The Court later dismissed the indictment against defendants Schultz 

(April 24, 2009), Flegm (March 5, 2009), and Vaught (March 24, 2009) and a second superseding 

indictment was filed on April 14, 2010 charging Defendants Mathers, Carper, Abram, and Joshua 

Vaughn with conspiring to illegally export stolen military night vision monocular devices. The 

case was investigated by ICE, DCIS, and NCIS.

• Violation of Trade Embargo with Iran – On Oct. 14, 2008, Seyed Mahmood Mousavi, a former 

interrogator for the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran, was sentenced in the Central District of 

California to 33 months in prison and a $12,500 fine for violating the trade embargo with Iran, 

false statements to the FBI, and filing a false tax return. Mousavi entered into consulting contracts 

to support a company in Iran in their efforts to bid for a mobile communication license and to 

establish a bank and leasing company in Iran. On April 24, 2008, Mousavi was convicted at trial 

of all counts of a June 8, 2007 indictment. The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Telecommunications Equipment to Iraq – On Oct. 2, 2008, Dawn Hanna was convicted by a 

jury in the Eastern District of Michigan on eight counts of an indictment charging her with 

illegally exporting telecommunications and other equipment with potential military applications 

to Iraq during the administration of Saddam Hussein and during the embargo on that country. Codefendant Darrin Hanna was acquitted at trial. On July 19, 2007, both defendants were indicted 

on charges of conspiracy, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, money 

laundering conspiracy, and false statements. From 2002 to 2003, the defendants allegedly 

received $9.5 million in proceeds to supply telecommunications and other equipment to Iraq in 

violation of the U.S. embargo that existed prior to the invasion by coalition forces in 2003. On 

March 25, 2009, Dawn Hanna was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $1.1 

million, which represented profits to her and her business. This investigation was conducted by 

ICE, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the FBI.
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• Military Accelerometers to China – On Sept. 26, 2008, Qing Li was sentenced in the Southern 

District of California to 12 months and one day in custody, followed by three years of supervised 

released, and ordered to pay $7,500 for conspiracy to smuggle military-grade accelerometers 

from the United States to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Li pleaded guilty on June 9, 

2008 to violating Title 18, USC Section 554. She was indicted for the offense on Oct. 18, 2007.

According to court papers, Li conspired with an individual in China to locate and procure as 

many as 30 Endevco 7270A-200K accelerometers for what her co-conspirator described as a 

“special” scientific agency in China. This accelerometer has military applications in “smart” 

bombs and missile development and in calibrating the g-forces of nuclear and chemical 

explosions. The investigation was conducted by ICE and the DCIS.

• Missile Technology to Iran – In late September 2008, Iranian national Jamshid Ghassemi was 

released from custody by authorities in Thailand after Thai courts declined a U.S. extradition 

request for Ghassemi. Ghassemi remains a fugitive. On Oct. 17, 2006, Ghassemi was charged in 

a sealed indictment in the Southern District of California in connection with his efforts to illegally 

obtain 12 Honeywell military accelerometers, as well as Honeywell gyroscopes, from a U.S. 

manufacturer, then smuggle these items to Romania so they could then be transshipped to Iran.

The accelerometers are used for missiles and spacecraft navigation and control systems and 

therefore classified as defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List. The indictment charged 

Ghassemi and another defendant with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and to 

smuggle goods from the United States, as well as conspiracy to launder money, and money 

laundering. According to the charges Ghassemi wired $70,000 from a bank in Romania to San 

Diego for the devices, which were to be sent to Bucharest. Ghassemi was arrested by Thai police 

in Bangkok on Nov. 13, 2006 pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest warrant after he agreed to meet 

with a U.S. confidential source there. During the subsequent extradition proceeding in Thailand, 

Ghassemi’s attorney filed a motion with the Thai court citing letters from Iran’s Ambassador to 

Thailand confirming that Ghassemi was a “high-ranking officer of the Iranian Air Force” who 

was merely carrying out orders by the Iranian Air Force to obtain accelerometers and that the 

money for the accelerometers came from the Iranian government. On July 2, 2007, a lower court 

in Thailand ruled against the U.S. extradition request, finding that Ghassemi’s actions were 

military in nature. The ruling was appealed by Thai prosecutors on July 27, 2007, who argued 

that a person’s military status does not entitle that person to commit crimes. The Thai appeals 

court denied the appeal and Ghassemi was released from custody in September 2008. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Electronics & IED Components to Iran – On Sept. 18, 2008, a 13-count indictment was 

unsealed in the Southern District of Florida charging eight individuals and eight companies with 

conspiracy, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the U.S. Iran 

embargo, and false statements in connection with their participation in conspiracies to illegally 

export electronics, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) systems, and other dual-use commodities to 

Iran. All the items had potential military applications, including in the construction of Improvised 

Explosive Devices (IEDs). Among other things, the indictment alleges the defendants illegally 

exported to Iran 345 GPS systems and 12,000 Microchip brand microcontrollers. These specific 

types of microcontrollers have been found in IEDs in Iraq. The businesses charged are: Mayrow 

General Trading, Atlinx Electronics, Micatic General Trading, Madjico Micro Electronics, and 

Al-Faris, all Dubai-based businesses; Neda Industrial Group, an Iran-based business; and Eco 

Biochem Sdn BHD and Vast Solution Sdn BHD, Malaysian businesses. The individuals charged 

are charged are: Ali Akbar Yahya and Farshid Gillardian, both Iranian nationals who are 

naturalized British citizens; F.N. Yaghmaei, Bahman Ghandi, Ahmad Rahzad, all Iranian 
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nationals; Kaam Chee Mun, a resident of Malaysia; Djamshid Nezhad, a resident of Germany; 

and Majid Seif, an Iranian national residing in Malaysia. As part of the enforcement action, the 

Department of Commerce added 75 individuals and companies affiliated with this Iranian 

procurement network to its Entities list. On August 24, 2009, defendant Gillardian pleaded guilty

to a superseding information charging him with making false statements. This investigation was 

conducted by Commerce BIS, DCIS, ICE, and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign 

Assets Control (OFAC.)

• Rifle Scopes to Russia – On Sept. 11, 2008, a grand jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania 

indicted Boris Gavrilov, D&B Compas Ltd, and Kiflet Arm on charges of illegally exporting 

military-grade and dual-use rifle scopes to Russia without the required U.S. government licenses.

Gavrilov is believed to be a resident of Israel. D&B Compas is located in Israel, while Kiflet Arm 

is located in Humboldt, Texas. Extradition proceedings for Gavrilov have commenced. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and BIS.

• Controlled Technology to Indian Missile & Space Facility – On Sept. 9, 2008, in the District of 

Columbia, a grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Siddabasappa Suresh, an Indian 

national, and Rajaram Engineering Corporation, an Indian corporation, on charges of illegally 

supplying the Government of India with controlled goods and technology without the required 

licenses. According to the indictment, from 2001 to 2003, Suresh and Rajaram caused the illegal 

export of more than 100 controlled goods with an approximate value of $136,000. The

indictment specifically identified six shipments to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), which 

was within the Department of Space of the Government of India and responsible for research, 

development, and production of India’s space launch system. These activities encompassed both 

civilian spacecraft and ballistic missiles. All of these transactions involved complex electronic 

instruments used in high performance testing and monitoring essential in the research and 

development of launching systems, including missile delivery systems. The investigation was 

conducted by the Department of Commerce BIS.

• Fighter Jet Components to Iran -- On Sept. 5, 2008, George Frank Myles, Jr. pleaded guilty to 

conspiring to illegally export military aviation parts without obtaining the permission of the State 

Department, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. Myles was indicted for this offense on 

Sept. 6, 2007 in the Southern District of New York, and the case was transferred to the Southern 

District of Florida pursuant to Rule 21. Myles was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment in 

November 2008. During the conspiracy, which spanned from April 2005 to March 2007, Myles 

supplied a number of military aviation parts, including F-14 parts, to an Iranian national, who 

allegedly picked up the parts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Bangkok, Thailand. On Nov. 7, 

2008, Defendant Myles was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment and 2 years supervised release

This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Ammunition to Mexico – On Sept 5, 2008, Noe Guadalupe Calvillo, Juan Luis HernandezRamos, Guadalupe Ramiro Munoz-Mendez and Rogelio Garcia were sentenced in the Southern 

District of Texas to 46 months in prison, 37 months in prison, 30 months in prison, and 39 

months in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to illegally exporting thousands of rounds of 

ammunition to Mexico. Calvillo pleaded guilty to illegally exporting 51,400 rounds of 

ammunition, while Garcia, Hernandez-Ramos and Munoz-Mendez pleaded guilty to exporting 

30,900 rounds of ammunition. This investigation was conducted by ICE. 
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• Military Aircraft Components to China and Iran -- On Aug. 28, 2008, Desmond Dinesh Frank, 

a citizen and resident of Malaysia, was sentenced to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty on 

May 16, 2008, to several felonies in the District of Massachusetts in connection with a plot to 

illegally export military items to China and Iran. A six-count indictment returned on Nov. 15, 

2007 charged Frank, the operator of Asian Sky Support, Sdn., Bhd., in Malaysia, with conspiring 

to illegally export items to Iran, conspiring to illegally export C-130 military aircraft training 

equipment to China, illegally exporting defense articles, smuggling, and two counts of money 

laundering. Frank was arrested in Hawaii on Oct. 8, 2007 by ICE agents. Frank conspired with 

others to illegally export and cause the re-export of goods, technology and services to Iran 

without first obtaining the required authorization from the Treasury Department. He also 

conspired with others to illegally export ten indicators, servo driven tachometers -- which are 

military training components used in C-130 military flight simulators -- from the United States to 

Malaysia and ultimately, to Hong Kong, China, without the required license from the State 

Department. This investigation was conducted by ICE, BIS, and DCIS.

• Forklift Parts to Iran – On Aug. 26, 2008, Robert E. Quinn pleaded guilty in the District of 

Columbia to a criminal information filed on July 9, 2008 alleging that he knowingly made false 

statements in connection with the illegal export of forklift parts to Iran. On Nov. 6, 2008, Quinn 

was sentenced to 18 months probation. On Aug. 4, 2006, David Tatum was sentenced to one year 

probation and a $5,000 fine, in connection with the illegal export of forklift parts to Iran by Clark 

Material Handling Corporation via Sharp Line Trading in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On Jan. 

19, 2006, Khalid Mamood, doing business as Sharp Line Trading, was sentenced to 17 months in 

prison. The case was investigated by ICE and BIS.

• Military Laser Aiming Devices & Fighter Pilot Cueing Systems to Taiwan – On Aug. 18, 2008, 

Yen Ching Peng was arraigned in Southern District of New York on Arms Export Control Act 

violations, as well as money laundering and smuggling violations after being extradited from 

Hong Kong. Among other things, Peng allegedly attempted to illegally export to Taiwan infrared

laser aiming devices, thermal weapons sights, and a Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System. On 

occasion, Peng requested that military items be delivered to his associate, Peter Liu, in New York

for delivery in Taiwan. On Dec. 11, 2007, Peng was arrested in Hong Kong, while Liu was 

arrested in New York. Liu later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Aug. 

7, 2008. On Dec. 12, 2008, Peng pleaded guilty to five counts of the indictment against him. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Missile Technology to Indian Government Entities -- On Aug. 11, 2008, in the District of 

Columbia, Mythili Gopal was sentenced to four years’ probation and fined $5,000 after pleading 

guilty on Oct. 30, 2007 to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act. Gopal cooperated with the government

against her co-conspirator, Parthasarathy Sudarshan, who on June 16, 2008, was sentenced to 35 

months in prison. Sudarshan, the owner of an international electronics company called Cirrus 

Electronics, pleaded guilty in March 2008 to conspiring to illegally export 500 controlled 

microprocessors and other electronic components to government entities in India that participate 

in the development of ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, and combat fighter jets. Among 

the recipients of the U.S. technology were the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Bharat 

Dynamics, Ltd., two Indian entities involved in ballistic missile production, as well as the 

Aeronautical Development Establishment, which is developing India’s Tejas fighter jet. 

Sudarshan was one of four defendants indicted in the case on March 8, 2007. Sudarshan and 

Gopal were arrested in South Carolina on March 23, 2007. The other two defendants, Akn Prasad 

and Sampath Sundar remain at large. Court documents in the case indicate Sudarshan was 
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working with an Indian government official located in Washington, D.C. as part of the 

conspiracy. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, BIS, and ICE.

• Equipment to Iran – On Aug. 11, 2008, Nicholas D. Groos entered a guilty plea in the Northern 

District of Illinois to three counts of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 

and one count of making false statements in connection with a scheme to transship U.S.-origin 

firefighting equipment to Iran using his position as director of a Viking Corporation subsidiary in 

Luxemburg. Groos was indicted on May 3, 2007. He was ultimately sentenced to 60 days 

imprisonment on Dec. 10, 2008. The case was investigated by ICE and BIS.

• Engineering Software to Iran – On Aug. 7, 2008, James Angehr and John Fowler, the owners of 

Engineering Dynamics, Inc. were sentenced to five years probation, fined $250,000 and ordered 

to forfeit $218, 583. On April 24, 2008, both pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging 

them with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in connection 

with a plot to export controlled engineering software to Iran. Engineering Dynamics, Inc, was a 

Louisiana company that produced software to design offshore oil and gas structures. As part of 

the case, on May 22, 2008, in the Eastern District of Louisiana, Nelson S. Galgoul, a resident of 

Brazil and the director of Suporte, a Brazilian engineering company, was sentenced to 13 months 

in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Galgoul pleaded guilty 

on Aug. 2, 2007, to exporting and attempting to export controlled engineering software to Iran 

without the required U.S. authorization. Galgoul was charged in May 2007. He acted as an agent 

for Engineering Dynamics, Inc. in the marketing and support of this software and trained users of 

the software in Iran. As part of the same case. The investigation was conducted by ICE, BIS and 

FBI. 

• Telecommunications Systems to Iran – On July 28, 2008, Allied Telesis Labs, Inc. was 

sentenced in the Eastern District of North Carolina to a $500,000 criminal fine and was placed on 

probation for two years. The company pleaded guilty on March 18, 2008, to conspiracy to violate 

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as part of a scheme to land and execute a $95 

million contract with the Iranian Information Technology Company to rebuild the 

telecommunications systems of 20 Iranian cities. The company was first charged via criminal 

information on Jan. 23, 2008. The investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Night Vision Firearm Sights to Japan – On July 28, 2008, Tomoaki Ishiba, a U.S. Army 

Captain, pleaded guilty in the Western District of Washington to conspiracy to smuggle goods 

from the United States. In his plea agreement, Ishiba admitted that he illegally shipped firearms 

parts including holographic night vision firearms sights to contacts in Japan. In October and 

December 2006, Iishiba shipped sixty holographic sights to a contact in Japan and purposely 

mislabeled the customs form for the shipment because he knew he needed a license to ship the 

firearms parts to Japan. Iishiba was charged on July 16, 2008. On Nov. 7, 2008, Iishiba was 

sentenced to 12 months and 1 day imprisonment. This investigation was conducted by ICE, 

DCIS, and the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

• Combat Gun sights to Sweden and Canada – On July 24, 2008, Euro Optics Inc., was sentenced 

in the Middle District of Pennsylvania to a $10,000 corporate fine, $800 special assessment, and 

five years of corporate probation after pleading guilty on March 17, 2008 to illegally exporting 

advanced combat gun sights to Sweden and Canada without the required licenses. Euro Optics 

was charged via criminal information on Oct. 5, 2007. This investigation was conducted by ICE 

and Department of Commerce BIS.
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• Cryogenic Pumps to Iran – On July 17, 2008, Cryostar SAS, formerly known as Cryostar 

France, a corporation headquartered in France, was sentenced in the District of Columbia to a 

criminal fine of $500,000 and corporate probation of two years. On April 11, 2008, the company 

pleaded guilty to conspiracy, illegal export, and attempted illegal export of cryogenic submersible 

pumps to Iran without a license. Cryostar specialized in the design and manufacturing of 

cryogenic equipment, such as pumps, that are used to transport and process natural gases at 

extremely cold temperatures. The company was charged on March 24, 2008. The investigation 

was conducted by BIS.

• Military Aircraft Components to UAE, Thailand – On July 17, 2008, in the Central District of 

California, Air Shunt Instruments, Inc., was sentenced to pay a criminal fine of $250,000 and a 

special assessment of $400 for making false statements on Shipper's Export Declaration in 

claiming that a military gyroscope being sent overseas in 2003 did not require an export license, 

when in fact the item required such a license. Air Shunt, a Chatsworth, California company that

buys and sells aircraft and aerospace components, was charged via criminal information and

pleaded guilty on July 15, 2008. John Nakkashian, a Vice President for International Sales at Air 

Shunt, was responsible for obtaining the required licenses for such exports. During the 

investigation, Nakkashian fled the country and remains a fugitive today. On May 20, 2008, 

Nakkashian was indicted on four counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act. The 

indictment alleges he illegally exported components for the J85 engine, used on the F-5 fighter 

jet, and other military items to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, without first obtaining the required

export license from the State Department. The indictment also alleges that he illegally exported a 

military gyroscope to Thailand. The investigation was conducted by DCIS and ICE.

• Computer Software to Cuba – On July 15, 2008, Platte River Associates, a Colorado company, 

was charged in U.S. District Court in Denver by Information for trading with the enemy. The 

president of Platte River Associates, Jay E. Leonard, was charged in separate Information on July 

15, 2008, for unauthorized access of a protected computer. According to the Platte River 

Associates Information, on or about October 2000, the corporation allegedly provided specialized 

technical computer software and computer training, which was then used to create a model for the 

potential exploration and development of oil and gas within the territorial waters of Cuba, without 

first having obtained a license. This case was investigated by ICE. In the second case, Leonard 

allegedly used a wireless network connection at Houston International Airport to access a 

password protected computer website server located in Georgia, belonging to Zetaware Inc., a 

Texas Corporation. The Information charges that the unauthorized information obtained by the 

defendant was done by means of interstate commerce. On Oct. 3, 2008, Platte River Associates 

pleaded guilty to violating the Trading with the Enemy Act and was sentenced on Sept. 14, 2009, 

to a $400 assessment, and a fine of $14,500. On Oct. 2, 2008, Leonard pleaded guilty to 

unauthorized access to a protected computer and was sentenced on Dec. 15, 2008 to one year 

probation. This case was investigated by the FBI.

• Military Night Vision Systems to Lebanon – On July 9, 2008, Riad Skaff, a naturalized U.S. 

citizen from Lebanon and former ground services coordinator at O’Hare International Airport, 

was sentenced in the Northern District of Illinois to two years in prison for using his position at 

the airport to help smuggle $396,000 in cash and illegally export weapons scopes, military night 

vision goggles, and a cellular phone “jammer” to Lebanon. The case resulted from an undercover 

operation in which agents posed as individuals interested in smuggling money and military items 

to Lebanon utilizing contacts at O’Hare airport to bypass security. On Aug. 17, 2007, Skaff 

pleaded guilty to all nine counts of an indictment charging him with bulk cash smuggling; 

entering an aircraft and airport area in violation of applicable security requirements with the 
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intent to commit a felony; exporting and attempted export of defense articles without first 

obtaining a required export license; and attempted international export of merchandise, articles, 

and objects contrary to U.S. law. Skaff was first arrested on Jan. 28, 2007. The investigation was 

conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Illegal Export of F-5 and F-14 Fighter Jet Components – On June 19, 2008, in the Southern 

District of New York, Jilani Humayun, a Pakistani citizen and resident of Long Island, New 

York, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally export arms and to commit money laundering.

Humayun was arrested on July 19, 2007, and charged by information on December 19, 2007, 

with Conspiracy to Violate the Arms Export Control Act and Smuggle Goods from the United 

States, and Conspiracy to Violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. According 

to his plea, Humayun illegally exported parts for F-5 and F-14 military fighter jets to Malaysia 

which prosecutors said may have eventually ended up in Iran. In the process of exporting these 

parts, he created airway bills that misrepresented the contents and value of his shipments. Such 

exports are of particular concern because F-14 components are widely sought by Iran, which is 

currently the only nation in the world that still flies the F-14 fighter jet. Humayun formed his own 

company, Vash International, Inc., in 2004, then, on eleven separate occasions between January 

2004 and May 2006, exported to Malaysia F-5 and F-14 parts, as well as Chinook Helicopter 

parts. This investigation was conducted by ICE, BIS, FBI and DCIS.

• U.S. Military Source Code and Trade Secrets to China – On June 18, 2008, Xiaodong Sheldon 

Meng was sentenced in the Northern District of California to 24 months in prison, three-years of 

supervised release, and a $10,000 fine for committing economic espionage and violating the 

Arms Export Control Act. Meng pleaded guilty in August 2007 to violating the Economic 

Espionage Act by misappropriating a trade secret used to simulate motion for military training 

and other purposes, with the intent to benefit China’s Navy Research Center in Beijing. He also 

pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act for illegally exporting military source 

code involving a program used for training military fighter pilots. Meng was the first defendant in 

the country to be convicted of exporting military source code pursuant to the Arms Export 

Control Act. He was also the first defendant to be sentenced under the Economic Espionage Act. 

Meng was charged in a superseding indictment on Dec. 13, 2006. The investigation was 

conducted by FBI and ICE.

• Valves to Iran – On June 9, 2008, CVC Services was sentenced in the Central District of 

California to a fine of $51,000 and five years probation for illegal transactions with Iran. In 

March 2008, the company pleaded guilty to selling to Iran valves that turn gas and oil pipelines 

on and off without a license. The company was charged on Jan. 31, 2008. The National Iranian 

Oil Company had sought the valves. This investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Controlled Amplifiers to China – On June 6, 2008, WaveLab, Inc. of Reston, Virginia, was 

sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to one year of supervised probation and a $15,000 

fine, together with $85,000 in forfeiture previously ordered, for the unlawful export of hundreds 

of controlled power amplifiers to China. The exported items, which have potential military 

applications, are controlled and listed on the Commerce Control List for national security reasons. 

Wave Lab purchased these items from a U.S. company and assured the company that the products 

would not be exported from the United States, but would be sold domestically. WaveLab pleaded 

guilty on March 7, 2008 to a criminal information filed the same day. The investigation was 

conducted by BIS and ICE.
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• Firearms Components to Sudan – On June 6, 2008, Khalid Abdelgadir Ahmed was sentenced in 

the Eastern District of Virginia to five months in prison after pleading guilty on March 13, 2008,

to unlawfully attempting to export assault rifle components to the Sudan. Another defendant, 

Entisar Hagosman, was sentenced to time served and two years supervised probation on June 6, 

2008 after pleading guilty on Mar. 13, 2008 to making false statements relating to her activity. 

Both defendants were charged in a complaint on Jan. 30, 2008. The investigation was conducted 

by ICE and BIS.

• Theft of Military Trade Secrets to Sell to Foreign Governments -- On May 16, 2008, Allen W. 

Cotten of El Dorado Hills, California, was sentenced in the Eastern District of California to two 

years in prison for theft of trade secrets. Cotten pleaded guilty on Feb. 29, 2008, admitting that 

while employed at Genesis Microwave Inc., he stole items including plans, designs and parts for 

the manufacture and testing of detector logarithmic video amplifiers (DLVA) and successive 

detection logarithmic video amplifiers (SDLVA), which are components used in microwave 

technologies. These technologies have military applications that include enhancing navigational 

and guidance capabilities; radar jamming; electronic countermeasures; and location of enemy 

signals. Cotten sold and offered for sale these items to foreign governments and foreign military 

contractors. The total amount of actual or intended sales to these companies was $250,000. 

Cotten was charged by criminal information on Jan. 30, 2008. The investigation was conducted 

by the FBI and BIS.

• Controlled Computers to Iran – On May 15, 2008, Afshin Rezaei was sentenced in the Northern 

District of Georgia to six months’ imprisonment and agreed to forfeit $50,000. Rezaei pleaded 

guilty on April 24, 2008 to one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers 

Act for the unlicensed export of computers to Iran via the United Arab Emirates. The computers 

were controlled for anti-terrorism reasons. Rezaei was indicted on Nov. 14, 2007. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Controlled Radiographic Equipment to Iran – On May 14, 2008, Bahram “Ben” Maghazehe 

pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to one count of false statements in 

connection with the illegal shipment of radiographic equipment to Iran. On August 14, 2007, 

Maghazehe was arrested pursuant to this shipment. Another individual, Jeff Weiss, pleaded guilty 

on Jan. 20, 2009 to a false statement charge in connection with his dealings with Maghazehe. On 

Oct. 28, 2008, defendant Maghazehe was sentenced to 5 years probation, $100 assessment, and 

$2,000 fine. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and BIS.

• Ammunition to Jamaica, Defense Training to UAE -- On May 12, 2008, Lance Brooks was 

charged in the Southern District of Florida with being an unlicensed broker of defense articles in 

connection with his efforts to broker the sale of 270,000 rounds of soft point ammunition to the 

Jamaica Constabulatory Force without the required license from the State Department. On Jan. 9, 

2009, Brooks pleaded guilty to count one of the indictment and on Aug. 28, 2009, he received an 

amended sentence of 12 months and 1 day. The case marked the second time Brooks had been 

charged with arms export violations. On Dec. 20, 2007, Brooks pleaded guilty to charges brought 

in Oct. 2007 that he exported defense training services on grenade launchers to the United Arab 

Emirates without a license. He was on bond pending sentencing in that case when the new 

charges against him were filed. The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

• Test Tube and Microplate Coating Systems to Iran – On May 1, 2008, Patrick Gaillard, the 

owner of Oyster Bay Pump Works, Inc., was sentenced in the Eastern District of New York to 

one month in prison, three years supervised release and a $25,000 fine after pleading guilty to 
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conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in connection with the 

planned export of restricted test tube and microplate coating systems to Iran through a trading 

company in the United Arab Emirates. Gaillard pleaded guilty on June 15, 2007. The coating 

systems for microplates and test tubes produced by Oyster Bay are controlled for export and can 

be used in a wide variety of research and laboratory applications. On July 17, 2007, James 

Gribbon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Emergency Economic Powers Act in 

connection with the case. The investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Controlled Computer Equipment to Iran – On April 28, 2008, Mohammad Mayssami was 

sentenced in the Northern District of California to two years probation, a $10,000 fine and 160 

hours of community service for his role in financing illegal exports to Iran. On Dec. 17, 2007, 

Mayssami pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspicious transaction for his part in financing 

export transactions by Super Micro Computer, Inc. He was originally charged by information on 

Dec. 3, 2007. Super Micro pleaded guilty on Sept. 18, 2006 to illegally exporting motherboards 

controlled for national security reasons to Iran and was sentenced to pay a criminal fine of 

$150,000., and agreed to pay an administrative fine of $125,400 to settle charges for related 

transactions. Super Micro was first charged on Sept. 1, 2006. The case was conducted by BIS.

• Military Night Vision Systems to Iran – On April 10, 2008, a British court ruled that Nosratollah 

Tajik should be extradited to the United States in connection with charges that he conspired to 

illegally export night vision weapons sights and military night vision goggles from the United 

States to Iran. Tajik plans to appeal the British High Court decision to the European Court of 

Human Rights. On Oct. 26, 2006, Tajik was arrested at his residence in County Durham in 

England by British law enforcement authorities, pursuant to U.S. charges filed in the Northern 

District of Illinois on Aug. 30, 2006. From December 1999 to October 2003, Tajik served as the 

Iranian Ambassador to Jordan. Tajik also held an honorary fellowship at England’s University of 

Durham’s Institute for Middle East and Islamic Studies. According to the August 2006 U.S. 

complaint, Tajik and a co-conspirator, Esmaiil Gharekhani, conspired to export to a variety of 

prohibited items from the United States to Iran via the United Kingdom, including night vision 

weapon sights and night vision goggles. The co-conspirator sent purchase orders to ICE agents 

for several controlled articles and asked that the goods be shipped from the U.S. to the United 

Arab Emirates for transshipment to Iran. During meetings in the United Kingdom, Tajik also 

allegedly asked agents about procuring a Swiss-manufactured 35mm naval gun capable of 

intercepting guided missiles. This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Russian Attack Helicopters to Zimbabwe – On April 8, 2008, Peter Spitz, a resident of 

Hallandale, Fla., and the owner of Russian Aircraft Services LLC, was arrested in Miami 

pursuant to a criminal complaint alleging that he conspired to sell seven MI-24 Russian attack 

helicopters and three MI-8T Russian military transport helicopters to undercover law enforcement 

officials who represented that the helicopters would be going to a Cabinet member of the 

government of Zimbabwe. Spitz was charged in the Southern District of Florida with illegal arms 

brokering activities. Spitz pleaded guilty to count one of the indictment in the case on Sept. 12, 

2008. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• U.S. Naval Warship Data to China – On March 24, 2008, Chi Mak, a former engineer with a 

U.S. Navy contractor, was sentenced in the Central District of California to 293 months (more 

than 24 years) in prison for orchestrating a conspiracy to obtain U.S. naval warship technology 

and to illegally export this material to China. Mak was found guilty at trial in May 2007 of 

conspiracy, two counts of attempting to violate export control laws, acting as an unregistered 

agent of the Chinese government, and making false statements. The investigation found that Mak 
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had been given lists from co-conspirators in China that requested U.S. Naval research related to 

nuclear submarines and other information. Mak gathered technical data about the Navy’s current 

and future warship technology and conspired to illegally export this data to China. Mak’s four codefendants (and family members) also pleaded guilty in connection with the case. On April 21, 

2008, Chi Mak’s brother, Tai Mak, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment pursuant to a June 4, 

2007, plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to export defense 

articles. On Oct. 2, 2008, Chi Mak’s wife, Rebecca Chiu, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for 

her role in the plot. On Oct. 1, 2008, Fuk Heung Li was sentenced to 3 years probation. On Sept. 

24, 2007, Yui Mak was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment. The investigation was conducted 

by FBI, NCIS, and ICE.

• Specialty Alloy Pipes to Iran – On March 14, 2008, Proclad International Pipelines, Ltd, a British 

corporation headquartered in Scotland, was sentenced in the District of Columbia to a criminal 

fine of $100,000 and corporate probation of five years for attempting to export from the United 

States to Iran via the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates specialty alloy pipes without an 

export license from the U.S. government. Proclad pleaded guilty to one count of attempted export 

without an export license on Nov. 30, 2007 after being charged via information on Oct. 16, 2007. 

The investigation was conducted by ICE and BIS.

• Nuclear Testing Equipment to India – On March 12, 2008, MTS Systems Corp, of Eden Prairie, 

Minnesota, pleaded guilty in the District of Minnesota to two misdemeanor counts and was 

sentenced to two years probation and a $400,000 fine for submitting false export license 

applications to the Department of Commerce in connection with the proposed shipment of 

seismic testing equipment with nuclear applications to an entity in India. MTS knew the end-user 

in India would likely use the seismic testing equipment for nuclear purposes, but, in its export 

applications to the Department of Commerce, MTS falsely certified that the equipment would be 

used only for non-nuclear purposes. Commerce denied the export license. The company was 

charged on March 11, 2008. The investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• 100,000 Uzi Submachine Guns to Iran – On March 10, 2008, Seyed Maghloubi was sentenced 

to three years and five months in prison in the Central District of California to attempting to 

illegally export goods to Iran. As part of his Aug. 27, 2007, plea agreement, Maghloubi admitted 

that he had plotted to illegally export as many as 100,000 Uzi submachine guns as well as night 

vision goggles to officials in Iran’s government. According to the facts of the plea agreement, the 

defendant sought to have the weapons shipped from the U.S. to Dubai and later transported over 

the border to Iran. Maghloubi was first charged on June 1, 2007. The investigation was conducted 

by the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department.

• Controlled Computers to Syria – On Feb. 14, 2008, Mazen Ghashim was sentenced in the 

Southern District of Texas to three years probation for violating the International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act and attempted export without a license. He was also ordered to forfeit 

computers and related equipment valued at $32,000. The violations occurred in February 2003 

when Ghashim and his company KZ Results exported computers and related equipment to Syria 

without the required licenses. Ghashim was charged on Aug. 14, 2006, and pleaded guilty on 

Nov. 1, 2006. This investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Military Weapons Sight to Germany – On Feb. 8, 2008, Bertrand Lalsingh of Hollywood, 

Florida, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, to exporting 

knowingly and willfully an EOTech 553 Holgraphic Weapon Sight, an item designated a 

“defense article” in Category I of the U.S. Munitions List, from the United States to Germany, 
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without having first obtained authorization from the U.S. Department of State. Laslingh was later 

sentenced to 5 months in prison. 

• Two Sentenced in Iranian Embargo Case -- On Feb. 8, 2008, in the District of Columbia, 

Mojtada Maleki-Gomi was sentenced to 18-months and a $200,000 fine for violating the U.S. 

embargo against Iran for conspiring to sell textile machinery to Iran. Maleki-Gomi's son, Babak 

Maleki, was sentenced on the same day to probation for making false statements. On Sept. 29, 

2006, Maleki-Gomi, his son, and a third defendant, Shahram Setudeh Nejad, were indicted for 

conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian 

Transactions Regulations, and for violation of the United States Iranian Embargo. On November 

19, 2007, Maleki-Gomi pled guilty to the conspiracy charge and his son Babar Maleki pled guilty 

to superseding information charging him with making false statements. 

• Military Night Vision Systems Overseas – On Jan. 22, 2008, Green Supply, Inc., was sentenced 

in the Eastern District of Missouri to two years probation, a $17,500 fine and an $800 special 

assessment after pleading guilty in Nov. 2007 to export control violations involving the illegal 

export of controlled night vision systems. The company was charged via information on Nov. 2, 

2007. The investigation was conducted by ICE and BIS.

• Firearms to Canada – On Jan. 11, 2008, in the Southern District of Florida, defendants Gary 

Roach and Laron Frazier were convicted on international firearms trafficking charges. The 

defendants were charged on July 26, 2007, for their role in a scheme in which they used straw 

purchasers to obtain handguns in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. They then smuggled the guns to 

Canada in the door panels of rental cars. On March 28, 2008, Gary Roach was sentenced to 135 

months imprisonment, while Laron Frazier was sentenced to 108 months imprisonment. On 

March 13, 2008, another defendant in the case, Nedson Jeanovil, was sentenced to 51 years 

imprisonment. This case was investigated by the ATF and ICE.

• Military Amplifiers to China – On Dec. 19, 2007, Ding Zhengxing, Su Yang and Peter Zhu were 

indicted in the Western District of Texas for Arms Export Control Act violations in connection 

with an alleged plot to purchase and illegally export to China amplifiers that are controlled for 

military purposes. The amplifiers are used in digital radios and wireless area networks. 

Zhengxing and Yang were arrested in January 2008 after they traveled to Saipan to take 

possession of the amplifiers. Peter Zhu, of Shanghai Meuro Electronics Company Ltd., in China, 

remains at large. On July 1, 2009, Zhengxing was sentenced to 46 months imprisonment. He pled 

guilty on October 17, 2008, to count 1 of the second superseding indictment. The case was 

investigated by ICE.

• Petrochemical Valves to Iran and Iraq – Andrew Freyer was convicted on December 17, 2007, 

in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, of five counts of violating the 

International Emergency Economic Powers Act and one count of conspiracy involving exporting, 

re-exporting, selling, and supplying valves from the United States to Iran, through Australia, 

without first obtaining the required U.S. authorization. On Dec.17, 2007, Freyer was sentenced to 

17 months imprisonment. On Oct. 15, 2007, Sharon Doe, Inside Sales Manager for Crane Pacific 

Valves in California, was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty in Jan. 18, 2007 

for her role in the export of petrochemical valves to Iran and Iraq through Australia in order to 

avoid the Export Administration Regulations. Both Freyer and Doe were charged on Dec. 1, 

2006. This investigation was conducted by BIS.
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• Military Night Vision Goggles Illegally Exported Overseas – On Dec. 11, 2007, Jerri Stringer 

was sentenced to 48 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release in the 

Northern District of Florida after pleading guilty to several violations in connection with a 

conspiracy with her son, former U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Leonard Allen Schenk, to steal 

restricted military night vision goggles, aviation helmets, and other equipment from the Air Force 

and sell them to overseas buyers. On Dec. 6, 2007, Schenk was sentenced to 235 months of 

imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to a 21-count indictment 

alleging the sale of stolen military equipment overseas and attempting to hire an undercover agent 

to kill a potential government witness. Schenk and Stringer were charged in the superseding 

indictment brought on Aug. 21, 2007. This investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Military Night Vision Technology to China – On Dec. 3, 2007, Philip Cheng was sentenced in 

the Northern District of California to two years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for his 

role in brokering the illegal export of a night vision camera and its accompanying technology to 

China in violation of federal laws and regulations. Mr. Cheng pleaded guilty on Oct. 31, 2006, to 

brokering the illegal export of Panther-series infrared camera, a device which makes use of “night 

vision” technology. He was indicted on June. 3, 2004. The technology used in the device was 

controlled for national security reasons by the United States Department of State. The case was 

the result of a joint investigation by ICE, the FBI, the Department of Commerce, and the IRS. 

• Fighter Jet Components to Germany – On Nov. 30, 2007, Murray Rinzler and his company 

World Electronics, Inc, were sentenced in the District of Connecticut to a criminal fine of 

$20,000 after pleading guilty on March 26, 2007 to charges that they conspired to violate the 

Arms Export Control Act by sending F-14 fighter jet components and other military items to 

Germany. Rinzler was also sentenced to two years probation. Both defendants were charged via 

information on March 26, 2007. This investigation was conducted by ICE, DCIS and BIS.

• F-14 Fighter Jet Components and Other Military Items to Iran – On Nov. 20, 2007, a grand 

jury in the Southern District of New York returned an indictment charging Yousef Boushvash 

with violating the Arms Export Control Act, smuggling, conspiracy to commit money laundering 

and other violations in connection with his alleged acquisition of F-14 military fighter jet 

components and other military parts from the United States for export to Iran. The grand jury 

later returned two superseding indictments against Boushvash adding new offenses. According to 

the charges, Boushvash operated a company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, called Glasgow 

International LLC which served as a hub for his illegal arms deals. Boushvash and his coconspirators allegedly contacted numerous suppliers in the U.S. via e-mail and had them illegally 

export military components to the UAE, Thailand, and other locations, for ultimate transshipment 

to Iran. Boushvash had been arrested by Hong Kong authorities on Oct. 29, 2007 in Hong Kong 

pursuant to a provisional warrant issued by the Southern District of New York. The Justice 

Department commenced extradition proceedings to bring Boushvash to New York. On April 11, 

2008, days before the extradition hearing was scheduled to begin in Hong Kong, authorities in 

Hong Kong terminated the proceeding and released Boushvash from custody. Boushvash 

currently is a fugitive from justice and has been placed on Interpol’s list of wanted suspects.

Three of Boushvash’s U.S. suppliers have been convicted in related cases. Lawrence Davis and 

Gwendolyn Douglas and George Frank Myles Jr. have all pleaded guilty in the Southern District 

of New York. This investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Pipe Cutting Machines to Iran – On Oct. 24, 2007, Roger Unterberger, Muhammad Bhatti, and 

Go-Trans (North America) Inc., three defendants involved with the investigation of Go-Trans 

(North American) Inc., were sentenced in the Northern District of Illinois after pleading guilty on
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Aug. 20, 2007 to making false statements in connection with the attempted export of pipe cutting 

machines to Iran via Germany. All were charged by criminal information on Aug. 1, 2007. In 

addition, on July 31, 2007, Mohammed Meshkin was indicted on one count of violating the 

International Economic Emergency Powers Act in connection with the case. The investigation 

was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Nickel Powder to Taiwan – On Oct. 11, 2007, Theresa Chang was sentenced in the Northern 

District of California to three years probation and to pay a $5,000 criminal fine. One June 21, 

2007, Chang pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements related to the export of nickel 

powder controlled for nuclear proliferation reasons to Taiwan without an export license. The 

investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Tractor Parts to Iran – On Oct. 11, 2007, Saied Shahsavarani, President of Tak Components, 

Inc. was sentenced in the Northern District of Illinois to three years probation and a $1,000 

criminal fine after pleading guilty on June 14, 2007 to one count of aiding and abetting the 

operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business. Also, on Oct. 11, 2007 Tak Components 

was sentenced to one year probation and to forfeit $38,016. On June 14, 2007, Tak Components 

pleaded guilty to 16 counts of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Tak 

Components illegally exported a variety of equipment to Iran, falsely claiming they were destined 

for the United Arab Emirates. Both defendants were charged on June 6, 2007. This investigation 

was conducted by ICE and BIS. 

• Illegal Exports of F-4 and F-14 Fighter Jet Components – On Oct. 5, 2007, Abraham Trujillo 

and David Waye of Ogden, Utah, were charged in the District of Utah with attempting to illegally 

export components for F-4 and F-14 fighter jets using the Internet. According to the charges, the 

defendants attempted to illegally export military cable assemblies, wiring harnesses and other 

restricted components to Canada in 2006 and 2007. Such exports are of particular concern 

because F-14 components are widely sought by Iran, which is currently the only nation in the 

world that still flies the F-14 fighter jet. On Feb. 17, 2009, a forfeiture judgment was entered as to 

Abraham Trujillo for $44,474.50. He pleaded guilty on November 6, 2008 to Count 2 of a felony 

information and was sentenced on Dec. 16, 2008, to 36 months probation. On Nov. 14, 2008, 

Defendant Waye was sentenced to 36 months probation after pleading guilty on Nov. 6, 2008 to 

count 2 of a Felony Information. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Products with Nuclear & Missile Applications to Pakistan – On Oct. 4, 2007, SparesGlobal, 

Inc., a Pittsburgh company, was sentenced to pay a $40,000 criminal fine in the Western District 

of Pennsylvania for conspiring to falsify documents and make false statements about a 2003 

illegal export to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that ultimately ended up in Pakistan. According 

to court documents, SparesGlobal exported to a trading company in the UAE restricted graphite 

products that can be used in nuclear reactors and in the nose cones of ballistic missiles. The 

graphite products were routed to Pakistan. After the shipment, the company attempted to mislead 

federal investigators when questioned about the shipment and related documents. On July 7, 

2007, SparesGlobal, represented by its President, Om Sharma, pleaded guilty. The company was 

charged via information on April 23, 2007. The investigation was conducted by BIS.

• Trade Secrets to China– On Sept. 26, 2007, Lan Lee and Yuefei Ge were charged in a 

superseding indictment the Northern District of California on charges of economic espionage and 

theft of trade secrets. The indictment alleged that the pair conspired to steal trade secrets from 

two companies and created a new firm to create and sell products derived from the stolen trade

secrets. The charges also alleged that Lee and Ge attempted to obtain funds for their new 
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company from the government of China, in particular China’s General Armaments Division and 

China’s 863 Program, otherwise known as the National High Technology Research and 

Development Program of China. Ultimately, a jury acquitted the pair on two counts and 

deadlocked on three others. A judge subsequently dismissed two of the remaining three counts. 

In October 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s office moved to dismiss the remaining charge against Lee 

and Ge. The case was investigated by the FBI. 

• Restricted Technology to China – On Aug. 1, 2007, Fung Yang, the president of Excellence 

Engineering Electronics, Inc., pleaded guilty in the Northern District of California to a charge of 

illegally exporting controlled microwave integrated circuits to China without the required 

authorization from the Department of Commerce. Yang was charged by information on July 31, 

2007. The investigation was conducted by BIS and the FBI.

• Radios, Ammunition Magazines, Scopes to Designated Terrorist in Philippines – On Aug. 1, 

2007, Rahmat Abdhir was indicted in the Northern District of California on charges of conspiracy 

to provide material support to terrorists, providing material support to terrorists, and contributing 

goods and services to a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. According to the indictment, 

Rahmat Abdhir communicated frequently with Zulkifli Abdhir, his fugitive brother and a U.S.-

specially designated terrorist who operates in the Philippines and is a member of the central 

command of Jemaah Islamiyah. From his home in California, Rahmat allegedly sent his brother 

money, two-way radios, Colt .45 magazines, binoculars, rifle scopes, batteries and other 

materials, even as his brother evaded capture and battled Philippine troops. Zulkifli Abdhir was 

charged in the same indictment with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and 

providing material support to terrorists. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and ICE. 

• Aircraft Components to Iran – On July 30, 2007, Ali Khan, the owner of TurboAnalysis in 

Phoenix, AZ, was sentenced in the Eastern District of New York to five years probation, a $1.4 

million forfeiture, and $100,000 criminal fine in connection with his role in a conspiracy to 

illegally export aircraft components to Iran. Khan previously pleaded guilty to one count of 

conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in Sept. 2005. He was 

indicted on May 5, 2004. This investigation was conducted by BIS and ICE.

• Sensitive Technology to Prohibited Facility in India – July 30, 2007, Samuel Shangteh Peng 

was charged in the Central District of California with illegally exporting sensitive technology to 

an entity in India prohibited from receiving such technology due to proliferation concerns. Peng, 

an international sales manager at a California company, was charged with illegally exporting 

vibration amplifiers, cable assemblies and vibration processor units in 1999 and 2000 from the 

U.S. to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Engine Division, in India. In 1998, the U.S. government 

designated this facility in India as an end-user of concern for proliferation reasons. On May 13, 

2009, for his violations of counts 1-5, Peng was sentenced to 3 years probation. The investigation 

was conducted by BIS, ICE, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). 

• F-14 Fighter Jet Components to Iran – On May 8, 2007, Reza Tabib was sentenced to 24 

months in prison in the Central District of California to violating the International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act in connection with his efforts to illegally export military aircraft parts to 

Iran via associates in Germany and the United Arab Emirates. In 2006, federal agents intercepted 

maintenance kits for the F-14 fighter jet that Tabib and his wife, Terri Tabib, had sent to Iran. A 

search of their California home led to the seizure of more than 13,000 aircraft parts as well as 

various aircraft part “shopping lists” that provided to the couple by an Iranian military officer. 

Reza Tabib pleaded guilty on June 5, 2006 after being charged in Feb. 2006. His wife Terri 
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pleaded guilty on Dec. 14, 2006. She was sentenced to 2 years probation on March 26, 2007. The 

investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

• Controlled Telecommunications Equipment to Cuba – On April 25, 2007, LogicaCMG Inc., 

pleaded guilty in the District of New Hampshire and was sentenced to pay a $50,000 criminal 

fine for illegally causing goods to be exported to Cuba. In 2001, LogicaCMG’s predecessor 

company, CMG Telecommunications, exported telecommunications equipment controlled for 

national security reasons to Cuba via Panama without the required export license. The company 

was charged by information on March 30, 2007. This case was investigated by ICE and BIS.

• Military Night Vision Components to India – On April 19, 2007, a jury in the Western District 

of Pennsylvania convicted Electro-Glass Products, a Pennsylvania company, of violating the 

Arms Export Control Act. Evidence at trial established that Electro-Glass illegally exported 

23,000 solder glass performs, which are components of military night vision equipment, to a 

company in India without the required State Department license. On July 13, 2007, Electro-Glass 

Products was sentenced to 2 years probation, a fine of $20,000 and a special assessment of 

$1,600. The company was indicted on April 5, 2006. The investigation was conducted by ICE.

• Telecommunications Equipment from China to Iraq – On April 10, 2007, Andrew Huang, the 

owner of McAndrew’s, Inc, an international export company, pleaded guilty in the District of 

Connecticut to one count of making false statements to the FBI. Huang was charged in 2006 with 

operating as a representative for the Chinese Electronic System Engineering Corporation, the 

technology procurement arm of the government of China. According to court documents, Huang 

allegedly helped broker the illegal sale and transfer of millions of dollars worth of 

telecommunications equipment from China to Iraq between 1999 and 2001. Huang was sentenced 

to 2 years probation and a $5,000 fine. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, ICE, NCIS,

IRS and BIS.

• Ballistic Helmets to Suriname – On March 28, 2007, Alpine Armoring, Inc., a Virginia 

company, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to the unlicensed export of controlled 

ballistic helmets to Suriname. Fred Khoroushi, the president and director of Alpine Armoring, 

also pleaded guilty to making false statements on an export declaration. Khoroushi was sentenced 

to one year probation and a $102,000 fine. Both Alpine Armoring and Khoroushi were charged 

via information on March 27, 2007. The investigation was conducted by BIS, ICE, and DCIS.

• Machine Guns, Arms to Indonesia – On Jan. 18, 2007, Hadianto Djuliarso pleaded guilty in the 

Eastern District of Michigan to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and money 

laundering in a scheme to purchase and illegally export more than $1 million worth of machine 

guns, sniper rifles and other weapons to Indonesia. According to court documents, Djuliarso also 

made inquiries about purchasing Sidewinder missiles and strafing ammunition for illegal export 

to Indonesia. Three other defendants, Ibrahim Bin Amran, Ignatius Soeharli, and David Beecroft,

pleaded guilty in this case. On May 11, 2007, Djuljarso was sentenced to 48 months 

imprisonment. On May 3, 2007, Bin Amran was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment. On 

April 26, 2007, Soeharli was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment. On Dec. 12, 2006, Beecroft 

was sentenced to time served. The investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.

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