Legal News

Glendale resident one of three men charged in possible nuke smuggling scheme

By Richard Binder

According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Jirair Avanessian, an Iranian-born chemical engineer living in Glendale, was paid several hundred thousand dollars to ship "high-dollar vacuum pumps and pump-related" equipment to Iran. The parts, which were mislabeled and significantly devalued on shipping manifests, were initially sent to the United Arab Emirates, federal authorities said. A co-defendant would then forward the items to a third defendant in Tehran, according to court papers.

Investigators do not know what the vacuums, valves and other components were ultimately going to be used for, but according to scientists one of their potential uses is "development of nuclear capabilities."

Avanessian was indicted Dec. 30, along with Farhad Masoumian, 42, of Tehran following a joint investigation by the customs agency, the FBI and the IRS. The pair are charged with smuggling and money laundering. A third man, Amirhossein Sairafi, also of Iran, was charged separately in a criminal complaint filed last week. He was arrested this week in Frankfurt, Germany, according to authorities.

Virginia Kice, a customs agency spokeswoman, said the investigation is ongoing and involves multiple federal agencies in addition to the FBI and IRS.

Full story at LATimes.com.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on January 14, 2010 (boomark / email).