Man Off To Prison For Trying To Send Missile Parts To Iran
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An Iranian national will be in prison for more than four years, after he admitted to trying to export missile components from an Illinois company to Iran.
Davoud Baniameri, 38, of Woodland Hills, Calif., was sentenced to four years and three months behind bars Friday by Chicago U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan. Baniameri pleaded guilty on May 31 to two federal counts.
Sometime before Oct. 10, 2008, Baniameri was contacted in California by Syed Majid Mousavi, who is based in Iran. Mousavi asked Baniameri to buy export radio test sets and ship them through Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Iran, federal prosecutors said.
Baniameri bought three radio test sets from an Illinois company, and had them shipped to his home in California. Then he shipped them to Dubai, where they would go on to Iran. Such items cannot be shipped legally without a federal license.
Sometime before Aug. 10, 2009, Mousavi contacted Baniameri again, and asked him to buy 10 connector adapters for the TOW and TOW2 anti-tank missile systems. Baniameri tried to buy the connector adapters from another Illinois company, which was actually a dummy firm set up by law enforcement.
Baniameri paid $9,450 to the dummy company, and told an alleged conspirator, Andro Telemi, to take possession of the adapters in California. He also arranged to fly from Dubai, then on to Iran, but was arrested before he made it, prosecutors said.
Telemi, 40, of La Tuna Canyon, Calif., is also a defendant in the case. Mousavi is a fugitive, and is believed still to be in Iran, prosecutors said.
