Florida Man Gets 4 Years in Prison for Exporting Electronics to Iran
Mohammed Reza “Ray” Hajian of Tampa, Fla. was sentenced Oct. 18 to four years in federal prison, as well as a $10 million fine and one year of supervised release following the end of his prison term, for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transaction Regulations, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Hajian pleaded guilty July 11, along with three of his companies: RH International, Nexiant, and P & P Computers.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Between 2003 and the fall of 2011, Hajian conspired with others to unlawfully export sophisticated, enterprise level computer and related equipment from the United States to Iran, in violation of the U.S. embargo, ICE said. In an effort to conceal their activities, Hajian and his co-conspirators caused the shipments of computers and related equipment, as well as the payments for the same, to travel to and from the U.S. and Iran through the United Arab Emirates, it said. Hajian and his co-conspirators communicated with each other via e-mail. They employed fake identities, fake end-users, and coded language in order to mask the true nature of their activities, ICE said. Hajian shipped approximately $14.85 million worth of computer and related equipment during the conspiracy.