Maryland Man Arrested for Exporting Industrial Parts to Iran
A Rockville, Md., man was arrested March 7 for allegedly exporting tens of thousands of dollars of industrial parts manufactured by U.S. companies to Iran, in violation of U.S. trade sanctions, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mehdi Khorramshahgol, 49, a U.S. citizen and Iranian national, was charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, ICE said.
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Beginning in 2008, Khorramghahgol allegedly solicited price quotations regarding U.S. origin-industrial parts for individuals and businesses located in Iran, ICE said. Khorramshahgol successfully purchased thousands of dollars of U.S.-origin parts. To avoid detection and to facilitate the shipment of goods from the U.S. to Iran, Khorramshahgol allegedly falsified shipping records by indicating the goods were of little value and that the end-user for the goods was located in the United Arab Emirates, ICE said. Once the goods reached the UAE, the end-user information was changed and the goods were shipped onward to Iran.
Khorramshahgol and his co-conspirators allegedly created paperwork that falsely stated the materials would not be sold to Iran, said ICE. The criminal complaint alleges that Khorramshahgol was aware of the U.S. sanctions against Iran, as he forwarded a Department of Justice press release regarding the enforcement of the Iranian sanctions to other co-conspirators with an instruction to "read it all," ICE said.