“My assumption was it was going to Iran,” he said in court last Thursday.
But apart from his first shipment, nothing ever went to Iran. The “Iranian agents” he thought he was dealing with were actually undercover US customs agents.
Knapp now faces up to 30 years in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act. Under a plea deal, Knapp is expected to get a minimum of two and a half years and a maximum of slightly less than five years in prison.
Assistant US Attorney David Hall said that during meetings with an undercover agent Knapp said he was “starting to hate the US more and more” and did not care where the arms ended up.
He also told the agent that the equipment he was selling would help Iran “level the playing field” with the United States and expressed interest in selling to China and Russia, according to court papers.
However, Knapp’s attorney, Christopher Koyste, called prosecutors’ descriptions “absolute puffery.” He said his client is not an arms dealer but is an out-of-work human-resources manager desperate for cash. He dismissed the anti-American statements attributed to his client and questioned the utility of the items.
Koyste said the F-5 was a “useless” antique that previously had been leased out to Hollywood production companies as a prop and that all the other items had been acquired through the online auction site eBay.
Prosecutors said they could not say how Knapp acquired the items and acknowledged most, if not all of them, could have been sold legally to someone inside the United States.
But Assistant US Attorney Robert Kravetz said once Knapp acknowledged to the agent—as he did repeatedly, according to court papers—that he knew the items were to be sent overseas and that they were headed to Iran, it became a crime.
And Koyste acknowledged that “useless” or not, the law was clear that the sales were a crime—and that is why Knapp did not go to trial but made the plea deal with prosecutors.
While Koyste said none of the items ever presented a real threat to the United States or its military, prosecutors disagreed. Hall said the plane was in working condition—Knapp had planned to fly the plane from the West Coast to the East Coast—and Iran has F-5 fighters and has been seeking replacement parts for them.
The sale price of the plane was $3.25 million, and Knapp thought he was set to receive a commission of $250,000 when the plane was delivered from California to the New Castle Airport in Delaware and an additional $250,000 when it reached Iran.
The plane was legally owned by a California man who wanted to get rid of it.
According to court papers, Knapp sold the other items—including two ejector seats for the F-14, five anti-gravity flight suits, four locator radios and copies of emergency manuals for the F-14, F-5 and F-4—for approximately $39,500.
During exchanges with undercover officers, Knapp used code words, according to court documents, calling the ejector seats “office chairs,” the radios “cars,” and the F-5 a “train.” One electronic message about the sales plan was titled “vacation plans.”
The investigation of Knapp began in late December 2009, when a man charged in a previous arms case said he bought an F-14 ejector seat from Knapp. That other man was believed to be an Iranian arms buyer based in Iran whom US customs agents successfully lured to the Republic of Georgia, where he was arrested and extradited to the United States. He is now serving a prison term.