AP reported that two men have been charged with trying to illegally export nuclear related material to Iran that could be used in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium.
The Justice Department announced that a grand jury indictment in the case also charged one of the men with conspiring to procure radioactive material from the United States for customers in Iran.
Mr Parviz Khaki a citizen of Iran was arrested in May by authorities in the Philippines on US provisional arrest request. The other man Mr Zongcheng Yi a resident of China is a fugitive.
The grand jury charged that in 2008, Khaki asked someone in China to obtain 20 tonnes of C-350 maraging steel from the US for Khaki's customer in Iran. The enhanced strength of maraging steel is especially suited in gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Mr Khaki also communicated with Mr Yi about buying 20 tonnes of maraging steel from a US company with which Yi was in contact.
In pursuit of maraging steel, Mr Khaki allegedly began communicating with an undercover US federal agent posing as an illegal exporter of US goods. He said that you know and I know this material is limited material and danger goods.
Mr Khaki also is accused of seeking to obtain mass spectrometers from the US. In a May 2009 email to the undercover agent, he said one magnetic mass spectrometer he sought was for the isotopic analysis of gaseous uranium hexafluoride, the government said. Uranium hexafluoride is the chemical compound used in the gas centrifuge process to enrich uranium.
In May 2009, Mr Khaki allegedly asked the undercover agent to buy radioactive materials from a US company, including barium 133 and europium 152. In January 2011, he again asked the undercover agent to purchase radioactive sources. He allegedly sent the agent a product catalog for radioactive materials including cobalt 57. He requested that the agent purchase cadmium 109.
Ms Lisa Monaco the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's national security division, said that the case sheds light on the reach of Iran's illegal procurement networks and the importance of keeping US nuclear related materials from being exploited by Iran. Iranian procurement networks continue to target US and Western companies for technology acquisition by using fraud, front companies and middlemen in nations around the globe.
Mr John Morton director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that US law enforcement had disrupted a significant threat to national security by dismantling a complex conspiracy to deliver nuclear related materials to Iran. The case was handled by the Seattle office of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations directorate.
According to federal law enforcement officials, the probe began in 2008 when the directorate engaged in routine outreach to the business community in the Pacific Northwest and one US company relayed a suspicious event. A supposed Chinese toy company wanted to place an order for 20 tonnes of maraging steel, a product for which no toy company could possibly have any legitimate use.
HSI decided to investigate using an undercover agent to contact the Chinese company which didn't respond. Eventually, the same US company that had originally alerted ICE reported getting an identical request for maraging steel from a Chinese man who turned out to be Mr Yi. Mr Yi referred the undercover agent to Yi's boss, Mr Khaki.
Source - Associated Press
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