US to Seize Massachusetts Home Used to Run Illegal Export Scheme

The U.S. is looking to seize a Waltham, Massachusetts, home from two people who allegedly used it to illegally export goods to several countries, including China, the Department of Justice said in a June 11 news release. Anni Beurklian, a naturalized citizen, and her husband, Antoine Ajaka, a Lebanese citizen and legal U.S. resident, used the home as a base for their company, Top Tech US Inc., which allegedly exported electronics and computer equipment illegally, DOJ said. Beurklian and Ajaka fled the U.S. in 2018 during plea negotiations to avoid prosecution, it said.

DOJ alleged the two people used their company to procure goods from U.S. companies and export them to Lebanon, Egypt, China and other countries. One customer, Amir Katranji, operated Syria-based Electronic Katranji Trading (EKT), a company that was added in 2007 to the Commerce Department’s Entity List for securing military goods for use against U.S. troops in the Middle East. To complete the transactions, Beurklian allegedly falsified the end-user and value of the exported goods, avoiding licensing obligations, DOJ said.

DOJ said it seized the website for EKT, which was used to complete illegal shipments of goods. EKT, Katranji, Beurklian and Ajaka were sanctioned in 2018 for procuring electronics for Syria’s chemical weapons program.