US man sentenced for illegal arms export to Iran
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Xinhua, October 27, 2011
A U.S. court on Wednesday sentenced a man to nearly four years in jail for illegally exporting military components for fighter jets and attack helicopters to Iran, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The man, Michael Edward Todd, is a U.S. national who is president of The Parts Guys LLC. He was sentenced this morning in federal court in the Middle District of Georgia. He was also asked to pay a 10,000-dollar fine and forfeit 160,362 dollars.
Todd was arrested in Dec. 2010 in Atlanta. He, along with his company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act. According to court documents, Todd conspired with several others to export components for attack helicopters and fighter jets from the United States to Iran without obtaining the required U.S. export licenses. These components included military parts for the Bell AH-1 attack helicopter, the UH-1 Huey attack helicopter, as well as the F-5 and F-4 fighter jets.
Todd is the second individual defendant to plead guilty and be sentenced in this investigation. Co-defendant Hamid Seifi, an Iranian-born U.S. national, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in connection with illegal exports of military aircraft components to Iran.
On June 22, 2011, Seifi was sentenced to 56 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, as well as fines.
