August 08, 2014
Two Americans from Florida have avoided any new jail time but have been forced to turn over almost a million dollars for shipping computer equipment to Iran in violation of the US embargo.
Both men had pleaded guilty.
Randy Dale Barber, 42, was ordered to forfeit $413,106 and pay $37,921.20 in restitution to Hitachi Data System. He received five years on probation.
Co-conspirator Michael J. Dragoni, 48, also received five years of probation, but with eight months of home detention. He and two of his companies were ordered to forfeit $498,706 and to pay $37,921.20 in restitution to Hitachi Data.
According to the plea agreements, from about August 2009 through at least August 2011, Dragoni and Barber made materially false statements to Hitachi Data in order to buy computer equipment for resale to Mohammad Reza Hajian, who in turn resold the equipment to Mahmood Akbari, and the UAE company Patco Group, Ltd.
By late 2009, Dragoni, Barber and Hajian knew that Hitachi Data refused to sell computer equipment to Hajian because the company believed the equipment was being diverted to unauthorized end users, the documents said.
To buy the computer equipment, Dragoni and Barber made false statements regarding the purchaser, end user, and location of installation of the equipment they were buying, the documents said.
In October 2012, Hajian, a former city of Tampa engineer, was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting he resold computer hardware and software from his home in Tampa to Iran.