Iranian citizen who violated US sanctions by exporting carbon fiber gets prison time

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An Iranian businessman charged with exporting tons of carbon fiber, a controlled substance with military and nuclear uses, from the U.S. to Iran was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday, the Justice Department announced.

Behzad Pourghannad was extradited from Germany to face charges in July. He was charged with violating U.S. sanctions by circumventing export controls on carbon fiber, according to U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York. Pourghannad pled guilty to the charges in August.

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Carbon fiber can be used to make nose cones for long-range missiles and can be used to manufacture rotors in the centrifuges that enrich uranium.

BUSHEHR, IRAN - AUGUST 21: This handout image supplied by the IIPA (Iran International Photo Agency) shows a view of the reactor building at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant as the first fuel is loaded, on August 21, 2010 in Bushehr, southern Iran. The Russiian built and operated nuclear power station has taken 35 years to build due to a series of sanctions imposed by the United Nations. The move has satisfied International concerns that Iran were intending to produce a nuclear weapon, but the facility's uranium fuel will fall well below the enrichment level needed for weapons-grade uranium. The plant is likely to begin electrictity production in a month. (Photo by IIPA via Getty Images)

BUSHEHR, IRAN - Nuclear power plant. (Photo by IIPA via Getty Images) (2010 IIPA)

Iran in recent months has made numerous announcements that it would be violating international agreement to use advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium and increase its nuclear stockpile.

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According to the announcement, Pourghannad and his co-conspirators, Ali Reza Shokri and Farzin Faridmanesh, lived and worked in Iran between 2008 and 2013. During that time they worked together to obtain the carbon fiber from the United States and secretly export it to Iran through third countries. Shokri procured the carbon fiber, Pourghannad served as the financial guarantor of the transactions and Faridmanesh served as the shipper. In the 2013 transaction alone, Pourghannad and Shokri negotiated for the purchase and shipment of more than five tons of carbon fiber to Iran by way of the nation of Georgia.

Faridmanesh labeled the carbon fiber “acrylic” to sneak by U.S. export controls.

The DOJ did not specify how much of the carbon fiber actually made it to Iran, or what would become of co-defendants Faridmanesh and Shokri.

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The case is being handled by the office's Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, along with the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the National Security Division.