WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department charged an Iranian man with purchasing helicopter engines and reconnaissance cameras for illegal export to Iran.
The Justice Department alleges Hossein Ali Khoshnevisrad, using his company Ariasa, in 2007 purchased helicopter engines from Rolls-Royce Corp. in Indiana that the U.S. Army uses for observation helicopters.
The affidavit alleges the engines were shipped from the United States to a supposed book publisher in Malaysia, which then sent them onto the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Co.
The U.S. Treasury Department in 2007 included the company, known by its Iranian acronym HESA, on a list of Iranian weapons proliferators, claiming HESA was supporting the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Justice Department charges also allege Khoshnevisrad had played a role in the export to Iran of several cameras that the U.S. military uses on its F-4E fighter bomber, which the Iranian military also uses.
Khoshnevisrad was arrested Saturday in San Francisco. He faces a maximum of 65 years in jail if convicted on all counts.
