A grand jury indictment issued July 2019 alleging two companies, one from Iran and the other from the Republic of Georgia, smuggled actuators and industrial valves from the country, hiding from the East TN company making the parts they would end up in Iran.
Beginning in or about September 2012, the exact date being unknown to the Grand Jury, and continuing through in or about October 2015, in the Eastern District of Tennesse and elsewhere, the defendants,
– Sayed Bahador Zafar Sadeghian
– Pardis Torkamaniasli
– Northex Enterprises, LLC
– Zafaran Industrial Group
,did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to defraud the United States and commit the following offense against the United States, to wit: knowingly and willfully exporting mechanical equipment and parts from the United States to Iran without first having obtained from the U.S. Department of the Treasury either written authorization or a license, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1705, and Title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, Sections 560.203, 560.204 and 560.205;
