An American arms broker
from California has been
charged with trying to sell an entire F-5 jet to Iran.
What he didnصt know was that the men he was dealing with were US Customs agents only pretending to work on behalf of the Iranian military.
The case was unsealed last Wednesday. Marc Knapp, 36, a broker from Simi Valley, California, was charged with violating the arms embargo, and is scheduled to plead guilty next month in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. The unidentified wealthy owner of the plane was not implicated.
Knapp is also accused of seeking to sell other military gear to IranرF-14 ejection seats, anti-gravity flight suits, and search-and-rescue beacons. He has been in prison since his arrest in July.
His lawyer, Christopher S. Koyste, told the
Philadelphia Inquirer the F-5 is an outdated plane that probably would not pose a serious risk to US forces. زIf the plane were used against the US, it would likely be shot down in minutes or seconds,س he said. Iran already owns dozens of F-5s, which the Shah bought in the 1970s.
In addition, Koyste said, the F-5 would not likely have made it all the way to Iran by boat. زThe more you know about this case, the more you realize the plane was never going to be flown out of the United States,س Koyste said.
But the legal issue is Knappصs intentions and efforts to knowingly violate the law.
The maximum penalty on the charges is 40 years in prison and $2 million in fines, but the advisory federal sentencing guidelines call for a far smaller penalty. Knapp has no criminal record, his lawyer said. Compared with similar cases, he probably faces a sentence of two to five years.
The Knapp investigation is the second recent major undercover arms investigation carried out by members of a small counter-proliferation unit based in Philadelphia, part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The other case involved an Iranian broker named Amir Ardebili buying American weapons for Iran. In that case, agents lured Ardebili from his home in Iran to a sting in the Republic of Georgia.
Much of the case is laid out in a 39-page affidavit unsealed last Wednesday. In the affidavit, an ICE agent alleges the following:
Knappصs first contact with the undercover ICE agent was a telephone call a year ago on Christmas Eve. During the call, Knapp offered to sell an F-14 ejection seat for $29,000.
The agent offered to meet in January for lunch in Philadelphia. But letصs be careful, the agent said. Itصs illegal to send military gear overseas without the proper licenses. No one wants to wind up in jail. That established that Knapp knew the sale he was proposing was illegal.
The two men met January 4, and discussed the ejection seats, F-14 parachutes, flight suits, emergency pilot radio beacons, and a state-of-the-art pilotصs helmet.
Knapp also mentioned that he knew a man in California willing to sell two F-5 fighter jets, adding that the owner would not know to whom Knapp was selling them. The agent agreed that they should say the planeصs final destination would be England and the men discussed whether the plane could be smuggled via Canada, Switzerland or Mexico.
When Knapp remarked that the Iranians might be interested in obtaining an updated flight manual for the F-4 and F-14 jets, the agent asked Knapp if he were worried about a potential US enemyصs obtaining such information.
No, Knapp responded, according to the affidavit. He told the agents he could زcompartmentalizeس and justify the sale to Iran, because he believed the United States could shoot down any F-5.
After the meeting, the two men agreed to communicate by codeرusing زIrelandس for Iran and زtrainس for jets, for example.
Two weeks later, the two men met again in Los Angeles. The undercover agent agreed to buy flight suits and F-14 manuals, and repeated that they were destined for Iran via Bahrain.
Then the men traveled to the Van Nuys airport to view the F-5, where Knapp fretted about leaving fingerprints on the plane. They worried about how they would smuggle a fighter jet overseas.
As they planned the plane deal, Knapp allegedly began smuggling flight suits to the undercover agentsص European address in Hungary. But Knapp sent low-quality flight suits, and the agents, acting as any real broker would, objected harshly, demanding that he make good on the deal. The agents apparently also used Knappصs mistake to help lure him to Budapest. The agents told him that the Iranians were now demanding a face-to-face meeting before they would buy the F-5.
The Budapest meeting took place the last week in April, and they reached a tentative deal. Knapp offered to have the F-5 flown from its base in Van Nuys to Delaware, where it would be crated and shipped to Hungary and then to Iran. He also promised to supply more anti-gravity suits.
In June, the undercover agent e-mailed Knapp and told him he was preparing a contract for the F-5 sale to a company in Wilmington. Knapp replied that his commission would be $500,000.
On July 20, Knapp met the undercover agent in Wilmington. First, they took care of smaller items, including four handheld search and rescue radios. The agent told Knapp heصd be sending those to Russia.
زAwesome,س Knapp allegedly replied. زWhoever your customer is, Iصm happy with.س
They then turned to the F-5 deal, and the agent issued a warning: The Iranians want your personal guarantee that this plane will be operational.
No problem, Knapp allegedly responded. They can see that when itصs flown from California to Wilmington, he said.
The men shook hands and signed the various documents, including a contract. Minutes later, Knapp was arrested.
It isnصt likely that Iran is interested in buying whole F-5s. But it is very interested in buying spare parts to keep its fleet of F-5s flying. After South Vietnam fell in 1975, North Vietnam inherited hundreds of F-5s.
Over the decades, Vietnam is known to have sold the Islamic Republic many parts from those planes, but it has not been reported as selling the Islamic Republic entire aircraft.