BALTIMORE -- A Maryland firm accused of selling mustard gas chemicals illegally to Iraq and Iran pleaded guilty Friday to a federal criminal violation of the Export Administration Act.
Alcolac International Inc., which is based in Baltimore, entered the plea in U.S. District Court before Judge Walter Black Jr. in a plea bargain with prosecutors.
Alcolac agreed to plead guilty to aiding the re-export of 120 tons of thiodiglycol to Iran by selling the chemical to a European firm called Colimex GmbH and Co. 'with reason to know' that the ultimate destination was not the country designated on a U.S. Customs shipper's export declaration form.
While pleading guilty to the lone charge, the firm said in a statement Friday that 'no one at Alcolac knew that the chemical was to be divereted to Iran or Iraq.'
The statement said the firm 'deeply regrets its unintentional role in efforts to misuse' the chemical, which is used in mustard gas.
Criminal complaints filed Jan. 30 connect the Alcolac charge to the alleged activities of chemical borkers Nicholas Defino of Nu Kraft Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Frans Van Anraat, a Swiss-based Dutch citizen linked to Colimex.
The complaints allege Defino and Van Anraat routed hundreds of tons of Alcolac's chemicals from Europe and Singapore to Iran and Iraq last year for use by the two countries' militaries.
Defino and Van Anraat are charged in the complaints with seven conspiracy, illegal export and false declaration counts.
Peter Walaschek, another chemical broker involved in exporting Alcolac chemicals to Iran, pleaded guilty to similar charges in Baltimore last summer but jumped bail and fled to West Germany.
Alcolac officials said in the statement they are fully cooperating with the federal investigation and have agreed to pay a fine of up to $993,000, five times the value of the chemicals.
