Mahmud Yadegari, 38, an Iranian-Canadian dual citizen, was sentenced in Toronto last July to four years and three months in prison for trying to smuggle transducers used in centrifuges to Iran.
The appeals court wrote, “[Yadegari] was persistent in obtaining the transducers, as well as quotes for many others, and deceptive in his attempt to export them. [The trial judge] held that the sentence imposed should promote a sense of responsibility in the offender and acknowledge the potential harm to the global community. I agree.”
Because of getting double credit for the 15 1/2 months he spent in jail before his conviction, Yadegari only has another 9 1/2 months to serve or a total of 32 1/2 months for his crime.
In sentencing him last year, Justice Cathy Mocha said Yadegari was “blinded by greed” and was not trying to help Iran’s nuclear program, but still could have caused great harm to the global community.
The immigrant operated a one-man export business from his bungalow in North York near Toronto before the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested him April 16, 2009.
In the previous month, he tried to export to Iran via Dubai two of 10 pressure transducers he purchased for $1,109 apiece from Setra Systems Inc. of Massachusetts. That firm was suspicious and notified the US authorities who alerted the RCMP.
The instruments, which convert pressure measurements into electrical signals for computers, have benign uses but can also be used in the enrichment of uranium.
Yadegari was “willfully blind” to their banned use, the judge said.
The prosecution said that the fact that Yadegari did not identify the transducers as such on his export documents proved he knew he was violating the law.
Yadegari’s attorney pointed out that Yadegari had already paid a steep price for his crime. He lost his house and his wife moved back to Iran, taking their one-year-old son with her.
Yadegari moved to Canada in 1998. He has two university degrees, including one in computer science. He ran a small trucking company before starting his import-export firm.
