Report on Supply Chain Compliance 2, no. 22 (November 21, 2019)
Behzad Pourghannad, an Iranian citizen, was sentenced to 46 months in prison for illegally importing carbon fiber from the United States into Iran from 2008 to 2013. According to the Department of Justice,[1] Pourghannad and his associates knew the imports were illegal under U.S. law and failed to obtain licenses and permission from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to export the carbon fiber.
According to court documents, Pourghannad worked with associates in Iran, Turkey, the Republic of Georgia, and the U.S. to conceal the transactions from law enforcement.
In related news, OFAC designated[2] several Iranian individuals for secondary sanctions, including Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff for the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The designations were joined by several Gulf nations that also imposed sanctions on Iran, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.