July 24, 2020
An Iranian businessman charged with exporting tons of carbon fiber, a controlled substance with military and nuclear uses, from the US to Iran has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison, the Justice Department announced. The sentence is a little longer than most violators of US sanctions laws have received.
Behzad Pourghannad, 65, was arrested when he tried to visit Germany and was extradited to the US to face charges in July. Pourghannad pled guilty to the charges in August. Carbon fiber is used in nose cones for long-range missiles and in rotors in the centrifuges that enrich uranium.
According to the announcement, Pourghannad and his coconspirators, Ali Reza Shokri and Farzin Faridmanesh, lived and worked in Iran between 2008 and 2013. During that time they worked together to obtain the carbon fiber from the United States and secretly export it to Iran through third countries.
Shokri procured the carbon fiber, Pourghannad served as the financial guarantor of the transactions and Faridmanesh served as the shipper. In the 2013 transaction alone, Pourghannad and Shokri negotiated for the purchase and shipment of more than five tons of carbon fiber to Iran by way of the Republic of Georgia.
Faridmanesh labeled the carbon fiber as “acrylic” to sneak it passed US export controls. The Justice Department did not say how much of the carbon fiber actually made it to Iran. Codefendants Faridmanesh and Shokri remain at large.