{"id":4814,"date":"2016-05-25T00:41:06","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T05:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=4814"},"modified":"2016-05-25T00:41:52","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T05:41:52","slug":"4814","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/4814\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian sentenced to three years in a U.S. prison for breaking Iran sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Canadian was sentenced Monday to three years in a U.S. prison for shipping banned electrical equipment to his native Iran \u2013 including some packages he put together from his jail cell.
\nStarting in 2009 and continuing until late last year, 45-year-old Ali Reza Parsa traded in \u201ccryogenic accelerometers\u201d bought from U.S. suppliers before he moved them through a Canadian front company. The end goal was to get the devices to Iran, where they have \u201cboth commercial and military uses, including in applications related to ballistic missile propellants,\u201d prosecutors said in a statement Monday.
\nProsecutors said Parsa, who pleaded guilty to sanction-busting in January, was so determined to get the goods overseas that he continued to do business while locked up awaiting trial in New York\u2019s Metropolitan Detention Center.
\nThe U.S. government alleged that, as an inmate, he continued to order parts from German and Brazilian suppliers, and have them sent to his Canadian front company for shipment to Iran. During this time, he directed \u201ca relative to delete e-mail evidence of his ongoing business transactions while in jail, emphasizing the need for secrecy in their dealings,\u201d prosecutors said.
\nThough Parsa was first arrested in October, 2014, very little has been reported about his case, which had been under seal until recently. His Canadian conduit company was known as Metal PM. An Internet search shows a janitorial services company by that name is based in Windsor, Ont.
\nBefore the past year\u2019s rapprochement between the West and the theocratic pariah state, U.S. diplomats had been frequently pushing Canadian authorities to crack down on sanctions busters within the Iranian diaspora community. The Americans said they hoped to contain the flow of \u201cdual use\u201d technology \u2013 or equipment ostensibly intended for civilian use in Iran but actually destined for weaponry.
\nThe Canadian government launched one of its only such prosecutions in 2009 when it arrested a 35-year-old Torontonian named Mahmoud Yadegari. A judge later sentenced him to four years for illegally exporting Canadian transducers to Iran. Prosecutors had alleged that the high-end gas-pressure gauges were destined for Iranian centrifuges that existed to enrich uranium.
\nIn 2011, leaked U.S. State Department cables published by the WikiLeaks organization showed that several senior U.S. diplomats during the George W. Bush administration called upon Canada to crack down on such sanctions busting. Several Ottawa officials, including the current RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, gave reassurances that Canada had the problem under control.
\nBut according to the leaked 2008 U.S. cable, one now-retired Canadian Border Services Agency official said sanctions busting was out of control. The CBSA\u2019s George Webb told the Americans that \u201chis hands were full targeting hundreds of mostly Iranian and Chinese foreigners\u201d who moved illicit goods through front companies.
\nIn January of this year, the new Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would follow the U.S. lead and lift some sanctions against Iran, but keep sanctions on dual-use devices.
\nSource: The Globe and Mail, 24 May 2016
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