export-controls 18 July 2019

Iranian national extradited from Germany to face US export control breach charges

US government officials have announced the extradition of an Iranian national from Germany to face charges of breaches of US export controls, while two others, the US government says, remains ‘at large’.

Assistant Attorney General John Demers said that Behzad Pourghannad, who was presented in court on 16 July, ‘is alleged to have sought to procure for Iran large amounts of carbon fiber – a commodity that can be used in the enrichment of uranium. U.S. sanctions exist to prevent behaviour, like this, which endangers our country, and the Department is committed to vigorously enforcing them.  Pourghannad and others who would attempt to thwart these laws need to know that their actions, which benefit Iran’s destabilizing efforts and make Americans less safe, will not go unpunished.’

There are three counts on the indictment, which also includes Ali Reza Shokri and Farzin Faridmanesh.

According to the Department of Justice, in one 2013 incident ‘Shokri and Pourghannad negotiated with [unnamed] Individual-1 for the purchase and trans-shipment to Iran of more than 5 tons of carbon fiber.  Faridmanesh and Pourghannad further agreed with Individual-1 that the carbon fiber would be trans-shipped from the U.S. to Iran through Tbilisi, Georgia, with Faridmanesh to serve as the trans-shipper.

‘Faridmanesh specifically instructed Individual-1 to change the shipping labels on the carbon fiber to reference “acrylic” or “polyester,” rather than “carbon fiber.”  Pourghannad provided Individual-1 with the bank guarantee that was to serve as surety for a portion of the carbon fiber.  In June 2013, Individual-1 informed Pourghannad, Shokri, and Faridmanesh that the carbon fiber would soon be shipped from Manhattan and that Individual-1 would replace the carbon fiber labels with shipping labels referencing “acrylic” to evade U.S. export controls.’