4 firms accused of illegally exporting military technology to Iran

The federal government is accusing four companies — one of them based in Houston — and five individuals with illegally exporting technology to Iran that would support military systems, such as naval vessels, radar arrays and air defense technology.

Government officials allege in a 24-count indictment that Houston-based company Smart Power Systems Inc. and its sister company, Iran-based Faratel Corp., as well as Taiwan-based Hosoda Taiwan Limited Corp. and Turkey-based Golsad Istanbul Trading Ltd. were part of an Iranian procurement network operating within the United States, the Justice Department said in an April 17 statement.

Along with those companies, 69-year-old Bahram Mechanic, 46-year-old Tooraj Faridi, 71-year-old Khosrow Afghahi, Arthur Shyu and 54-year-old Matin Sadeghi were also charged with helping to facilitate the elaborate scheme, according to the indictment.

Defendants participating in the scheme now face federal charges that range from money laundering to violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the president of United States the broad authority to regulate exports and other international transactions in times of national emergency.

Court documents show that between the summer 2010 and spring 2015 the companies and their top business leaders “developed and executed a scheme to obtain various commodities, including dual-use United States-origin microelectronics, and illegally export these to Iran.”

“During this time, the defendants obtained at least approximately 28 million parts valued at approximately $24 million from companies worldwide and shipped these commodities to Iran via third countries such as Taiwan and Turkey,” the documents state.

Randall Coleman, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, said: “The proliferation of sensitive U.S. technologies to Iran and the direct support to their military and weapons programs remains a clear threat to U.S. national security.”

“The FBI and our interagency partners will continue to identify, penetrate and neutralize proliferation efforts aimed at circumventing our export control laws and economic sanctions to illegally obtain sensitive technologies.”