Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office
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Arms dealers jailed for arms trafficking to Iran
Three businessmen were jailed today for a total of 10 years at Southwark Crown Court, following a successful prosecution by the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO), for conspiring to export military equipment to Iran and for conspiring to supply military goods from the USA to Iran via Hong Kong and Romania.
The three businessmen, two of whom had been granted political asylum in this country having fled from Iran in 1995, were charged with obtaining parts to be used as spares for Iran's ageing military aircraft, including F14 Tomcats, F4 Phantoms, F5 Tigers and Cobra Attack Helicopters.
In May 2006, HM Revenue and Customs officers intercepted a shipment of eight liquid oxygen converters bound for Iran at Heathrow Airport. The liquid oxygen converters had been designed in the USA and manufactured as part of the breathing system for aircrew in fighter jets.
The defendants claimed that the liquid oxygen converters were for use in ambulances, and supplied HM Revenue and Customs with documentation to establish this. Following detailed investigation, it was discovered that the documentation was fake and had been created by the defendants, and that the trade in aircraft parts had begun at the end of 2005. The three defendants were arrested between August and November 2007 and their homes and businesses were searched.
Following a further two years' worth of work by prosecutors and investigators, including RCPO issuing formal requests for evidence to Hong Kong, Romania and Luxembourg, 8,000 pages of evidence was gathered and presented to the court.
The evidence showed that the defendants received requests from Iran for them to obtain and supply parts, including oxygen converters, military radios, helicopter engine transmissions and electric motors for 20mm Gatling-type cannons. They then sourced the parts from the USA and were advised by their suppliers that exporting them required an export licence. The defendants pretended that the parts were for customers within the USA and arranged for them to be shipped to an address in Florida. From Florida, the parts were exported to the UK and then on to Iran using misleading descriptions of the parts and their value.
David Green QC, Director of RCPO, said:
"This is an excellent example of international law enforcement and prosecuting agencies working together to prevent arms trafficking, and more specifically to end the activities of a major Iranian arms procurement network. RCPO prosecutors worked with counterparts in the USA, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Romania to acquire the evidence that has allowed us to bring this case to a successful conclusion."
Background information
Mohsen Akhavan Nik came to the
attention of HM Revenue & Customs officers in 2000 when a
laser that he had sent to Iran was seized and he was warned about
arms trafficking. He claimed that the laser was used to project
advertising slogans onto the outside of buildings when, in fact,
it was designed for battle simulation by tanks.
In May 2006, HM Revenue and Customs intercepted a shipment of eight liquid oxygen converters bound for Iran at Heathrow Airport. The liquid oxygen converters were part of the breathing system for aircrew in fighter jets.
Mohsen Akhavan Nik and Mohammed Akhavan Nik claimed that the liquid oxygen converters were for use in ambulances and supplied HM Revenue & Customs with documentation purporting to establish this. Following detailed investigation, it became clear that the documentation was fake and that their trade in aircraft parts to Iran had begun at the end of 2005.
In August 2007, HM Revenue and Customs officers arrested Mohsen Akhavan Nik and Mohammed Akhavan Nik and searched their home in Ascot where their business was also based. A large quantity of documents, computer material and some aircraft components were seized. Examination of that material led the investigators to speak to Nitish Jaitha who provided further documents. A detailed analysis of that material led the investigators to arrest Jaitha in November 2007.
The material gathered showed that Mohsen Akhavan Nik received requests from one of two people in Iran to obtain parts and supply quotes for the delivery of those parts to Iran. These requests included not just liquid oxygen converters but a vast array of parts required for military aircraft.
Mohsen Akhavan Nik and Mohammed Akhavan Nik then asked Jaitha to source the parts from the USA. On regular occasions, the supplier of the parts would specifically state that the parts required an export licence from the USA authorities before those parts could be exported. When that happened, the defendants pretended that the customer for the parts was in the USA and would arrange shipment of the goods to an address in Florida that had been set up by Mohsen Akhavan Nik and Mohammed Akhavan Nik. Once the goods were received in Florida, they were exported to the UK and then on to Iran using false descriptions of the parts and their value.
Following the seizure of the liquid oxygen converters in May 2006, the three men changed their method of operation so that the parts were shipped from the USA to Hong Kong, from where they were sent to Iran. Following that, the three men shipped five liquid oxygen converters to Romania. However, before they could be sent on to Iran, they were intercepted in February 2007 by Romanian customs officers at Otopeni Airport in Bucharest. That in turn led to the interception of a further 32 liquid oxygen converters in March 2007 in Florida by special agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, these further interceptions did not stop the illegal activities of the defendants. By using a variety of false identities and bogus companies, the three men continued to order parts and ship them to Iran.
By the time of the arrests, Mohsen Akhavan Nik and Mohammed Akhavan Nik had received over £500,000 for aircraft parts that had been sent to Iran, and Nitish Jaitha had received over £200,000. It became clear from the documents that had been seized and analysed that the expectation of the defendants was that those amounts were going to be hugely increased had it not been for their arrests.
The trial began on 27 April 2009 with the defendants denying all of the allegations. During the trial, both Mohsen Akhavan Nik and Mohammed Akhavan Nik claimed that, while they had no qualms about breaking USA export control laws, they had not and would not break UK export control laws. However, they accepted that they had acted with considerable dishonesty in their manufacture and use of false identities and false companies in effecting these shipments to Iran. They asserted that that dishonesty was the means by which the USA export control laws were broken rather than the UK export control laws.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Defendants
* Moshen Akhavan Nik DOB: 11/11/1959
5 years on count one, 3
years on count two, to run concurrently and also disqualified as
Company Director for 7 years
* Mohammed Akhavan Nik DOB: 02/06/1982 -
2 1/2 years on
count one, 18 months on count two, to run concurrently
* Nitish Jaitha DOB: 02/09/1965 - 2 1/2 years on count one, 18 months on count two, to run concurrently
2. Offences for which all three defendants were convicted
* Conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the export of goods
contrary to Section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977
*
Conspiracy to evade the prohibition on the movement of controlled
goods between third countries contrary to Section 1(1) of the
Criminal Law Act 1977
3. The UK has had a national arms embargo in place in relation to Iran since March 1993.
4. The Military List is contained within Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods, Transfer of Technology and Provision of Technical Assistance (Control) Order which includes machine guns, pistols, cannon, flame throwers, ammunition, bombs, missiles, military vehicles and aircraft, chemicals, armour, fuels and other technical equipment.
5. The Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) was created by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 on 18 April 2005. An independent prosecuting authority, RCPO reports directly to the Attorney General and is responsible for prosecuting cases for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). RCPO prosecutes some of the largest drug and fraud cases in the UK.
6. For more information, contact the RCPO press office on 020 7147 7747.
