December 12, 2014
The US government charged a Chinese man last week with trying to smuggle components used in centrifuges to Iran, while a court in Pennsylvania sentenced an American found guilty of smuggling other machinery to Iran to just one year of probation.
Helmut Oertmann, CEO of Hetran Inc. of Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by US Federal District Judge Yvette Kane.
US Attorney Peter J. Smith said Hetran attempted to skirt American export restrictions to ship a 25-ton, $800,000 horizontal lathe it manufactured to Iran. The machine is used in the production of specialty items, including automotive and aircraft parts.
Smith said Hetran officials falsified shipping documents to make it appear the lathe was destined for Dubai.
US officials halted the shipment in 2012, however, and in December 2012 Hetran and Oertmann were indicted by a federal grand jury. They pleaded guilty.
In the other case, Sihai Cheng, a Chinese national, was extradited from Britain last week and flown to Massachusetts where he faces trial for a 2009 scheme in which Cheng bought pressure transducers from MKS Instruments in Massachusetts for shipment to dummy corporations in China. Once they were in China, they were re-shipped to Eyvaz Technic Manufacturing Co. in Tehran.
The transducers can be used to measure and control pressure in centrifuges so they do not break. They also have commercial applications, but they cannot be shipped to Iran under US law.
Photographs taken of President Ahmadi-nejad visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment plant show MKS transducers attached to centrifuges, the prosecutor said. Abolfazl Shahab Jamili was also indicted in the scheme. He remains at large and is presumed to be in Iran.
Cheng was arrested in Britain in February, but it took until now to arrange the extradition.