US charges 4 cos over Iran exports

Four companies and five people have been charged with illegally exporting high-tech microelectronics, uninterruptible power supplies and other products to Iran through Taiwan and Turkey, the US Justice Department said on Friday.

According to the 24-count indictment unsealed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, from July 2010 onwards the men obtained approximately 28 million parts, worth $24m, from companies across the world.

They evaded U.S. controls banning the export of the technologies to Iran, which is under a broad array of U.S. sanctions, by shipping the parts via Taiwan and Turkey, the indictment said.

The technologies can be put to use in various military systems, including surface-air and cruise missiles, according to the indictment.

Houston-based company Smart Power Systems Inc (SPS); Bahram Mechanic, 69, and Tooraj Faridi, 46, both of Houston; and Khosrow Afghahi, 71, of Los Angeles, are claimed to have been members of an Iranian procurement network operating in the United States. All three men are in U.S. custody.

Also charged are Arthur Shyu, and the Hosoda Taiwan Limited Corporation, a trading company in Taiwan; Matin Sadeghi, 54, and Golsad Istanbul Trading Ltd, a shipping company in Turkey; and the Faratel Corp, co-owned by Mechanic and Afghahi in Iran.

Shyu is a senior manager at Hosoda Taiwan and Sadeghi an employee of Golsad Istanbul Trading. Both are believed to be outside the United States and remain at large.

Faratel and its Houston-based sister company SPS both design and build uninterruptible power supplies for clients including the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Iranian Centrifuge Technology Company.

Faratel is alleged to have received at least 250 shipments to Iran.

If convicted, the corporations face fines of up to $1 million for each U.S. sanctions violation, and the defendants face up to 20 years in prison.