The man attempted to sell prohibited items to the Islamic Republic. He was fined $100,000 and sentenced to three years’ probation in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The first six months of that probation will be in home confinement for Vikramaditya Singh, 34, of Fountain Hills, Arizona. Singh admitted guilt in November.
The sentence by Chief District Judge Gregory M. Sleet was significantly below federal sentencing guidelines of approximately four years of incarceration, below the 18 months that prosecutors were asking for and below even the defense request of one year and one day in prison. The judge did not explain the rationale for his leniency.
In a sentencing memo, defense attorney Danny Onoranto asked for mercy based on Singh’s lack of a criminal record, his full acceptance of responsibility and remorse.
He also argued that Singh should be treated more leniently because he was involved in the sale of radios, not a weapons system or something more demonstrably dangerous.
Finally, he wrote that Singh, a native of India who has permanent resident status in the United States, faces likely deportation as a result of his conviction.
The case is the first known conviction stemming from a massive 2007 sting operation in which customs men pretending to be arms merchants enticed an Iranian arms buyer, Amir Ardebili, to leave Iran and meet them in the Republic of Georgia. He was arrested there and later extradited to the United States, where he is now imprisoned.
Investigators found e-mails on Ardebili’s computer from Singh involving negotiations to buy items that could not be sold to Iran under US law and had military applications, including digital microwave radios.
An undercover agent took over posing as an agent for Iran, and eventually Singh arranged for two shipments worth approximately $15,900 to Slovenia and Denmark, with the stated intention that this was a ruse and that the radios would then be shipped on to Iran.
Prosecutors said Singh was fully aware of the illegal nature of the sales and shipments.
Assistant US Attorney Robert F. Kravetz, in a sentencing memo, told the court that Singh attempted “to rationalize his conduct by telling the agent that what his customers did with his products were not his concern.”
First Assistant US Attorney David Weiss said this prosecution is “one of many” stemming from the arrest of Ardebili, who was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2009. No other such cases have been publicly identified yet.
The case received attention in the Indian media becasue the convicted man is the son-in-law of Ajit Singh, who is the leader of the Rashtriya Lok Dal political party. The party only runs in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous province, and it currently holds five seats in the national parliament.