A 64-year resident of Central Ohio was sentenced to a 20-month sentence for violating U.S. sanction by supplying industrial and oil technology to Iran, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The statement issued on October 24 says Behrooz Behroozian who was born in Iran in 1955 and entered the United States in 1976 and for over a decade knowingly engaged in supplying technology that violated U.S. sanctions. He had become a U.S. citizen in 1987.
“For years, this defendant deliberately sought to defeat and evade the Iranian sanctions for personal gain while supplying critical equipment to the Iranian industrial complex. As this case demonstrates, the desire for specialized American technology and the willingness to illegally supply it to hostile countries are very real and ever present,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.
“The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners remain committed to identifying, disrupting, and prosecuting this kind of criminal conduct", Demers added.
The prosecution showed that Behroozian used an intermediary company, Sumar Industrial Equipment in the United Arab Emirates to cover-up his illegal activities. He had set up a computer parts company in Ohio, which had no domestic sales but was shipping manifolds, valves and connectors used for industrial pipelines for gas and refinement industries to Iran via Sumar.
According to the Justice Department he was making around $40,000 a year.