Iranian Citizen Pleads Guilty to Violating IEEPA

An Iranian citizen pleaded guilty to illegally exporting carbon fiber from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said in an Aug. 29 press release. Behzad Pourghannad faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Between 2008 and 2013, Pourghannad worked with co-defendants Ali Reza Shokri and Farzin Faridmanesh to buy carbon fiber from the U.S. and ship it to Iran through third countries, the press release said. Around 2008, they worked with a person based in Turkey to ask a U.S. carbon fiber supplier to ship the goods to a company associated with Shokri, the Justice Department said. The shipment left the U.S. and traveled through Europe and the United Arab Emirates before getting to Iran.

They again tried to export carbon fiber in 2009 and 2013. In 2009, the three enlisted the help of a fourth person to buy the carbon fiber from a U.S. supplier, but it was stopped in a third country before it could be sent to Iran, the Justice Department said. In 2013, they again used the help of a fourth person to buy more than five tons of carbon fiber from the U.S. The goods were transshipped through the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and the co-conspirators agreed to change the shipping labels “to reference ‘acrylic’ or ‘polyester,’ rather than ‘carbon fiber,’” the press release said.