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Two Vancouver men accused of violating trade sanctions, shipping technology to Iran

Two Vancouver men have been accused of being part of a group that conspired to send American-made technology to Iran, in violation of trade sanctions and potentially threatening national security.
According to a grand jury indictment filed in California in August 2013 but that only recently came to light, the group shipped an assortment of U.S.-made technical gear — pressure transducers, thermal imagers, solenoid valves, battery chargers and gear motors — to Iran via Canada, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, from 2007 through 2011.
The indictment suggests some of the items were destined for Iran’s oil and gas industries or for a “military application.”
“The end purchaser for some of these items was the Iranian military, thus national security was implicated,” Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle, said Thursday in an email.
One of the Vancouver men, Shahin Tabatabaei, of Vancouver, was arrested last week after crossing the border into Washington state.
Federal prosecutors say Tabatabaei was the owner of two companies, Grupocanamex in Mexico and Canadian Industrial Solutions in Canada.
A business associate in Iran, named Abbas Moradi, would take orders from Iranian companies for various U.S.-made goods, then ask Tabatabaei to arrange the purchases, according to the indictment.
Tabatabaei did so, using false names, such as Gary Sean Williams and Alex Moore. He also made false representations about who the end-users would be, according to the indictment.
The other B.C. man named in the indictment, Seyed Mohammad Akhavan Fatemi, helped arrange payments for the items and their shipment into and out of Canada, prosecutors say.
Tabatabaei remains in U.S. custody and is expected to be transferred to California in coming weeks.
Fatemi owns a company called the IRCA Group, the indictment states. The company describes itself online as being an “independent builder focused on creating new and thriving neighbourhoods.”
Fatemi, who lives in West Vancouver, could not be reached for comment. His son, Ehsan Fatemi, declined to comment when reached by phone.
However, in an interview this week with The Associated Press, he said he did not believe the person listed in the indictment could be his father.
“If what you’re saying is true, it’s completely bogus.”
He acknowledged that a Shahin Tabatabaei who worked in “import-export” rented space in the company’s office until about six or eight months ago.
According to the indictment, equipment was purchased from companies all over the United States, including California, New Jersey and Ohio.
Tabatabaei apparently ran into problems in September 2010, telling Moradi in an e-mail Canada’s export control regulators had blocked his account in order to stop his export operations, the indictment said. He attached a letter from the Canadian government entitled Sanctions against Iran.
Moradi suggested Tabatabaei should sue the Canadian government, the indictment said. But Tabatabaei responded he could not win such a lawsuit.
However, during Tabatabaei’s detention hearing in Washington state this week, a federal prosecutor reportedly told the court that even though sanctions against Iran have eased, supplying items to the Iranian military was still prohibited.



 


Source:  The Vancouver Sun, 25 Feb 2016



 

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