WASHINGTON — A US CEO has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for conspiring to export specialty metals to Iran that have nuclear and missile applications, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Kuyumcu, a US citizen, admitted to conspiring with others to send over a thousand pounds of metallic powder with nuclear and missile applications to Iran via Turkey, Acting Assistant US Attorney General Dana Boente said.
Kuyumcu, a US citizen, admitted to conspiring with others to send over a thousand pounds of metallic powder with nuclear and missile applications to Iran via Turkey, Acting Assistant US Attorney General Dana Boente said.
In this picture released by official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a graduation ceremony of a group of the Revolutionary Guard cadets in Tehran, Iran.
© AP Photo/ Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader
Iran’s Supreme Leader Pardons Over 1,100 Convicts on Muslim Holidays The CEO arranged to have the powder, primarily composed of cobalt and nickel, shipped to Turkey and then to Iran in order to hide the destination of the goods, according to court documents.
Kuyumcu used coded language to discuss the shipment with a co-conspirator based in Turkey, such as referring to Iran as the “neighbor,” court documents showed.
Shortly after one of the shipments was sent from Turkey to Iran, a steel company in Iran sent a letter-sized package to Kuyumcu’s Turkey-based co-conspirator, according to court filings.
The Justice Department said the Iranian steel company had the same address as an Iranian entity that has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department over its association with Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
