Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) Two men were charged with illegally procuring American technology for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps drone program, according to court documents unsealed by the Justice Department.
Iranian national Hossein Hatefi Ardakani and co-defendant Gary Lam, who was based in China and Hong Kong, were charged in D.C. federal court with procuring microelectronics for the IRGC s program from 2014 to 2015, according to court documents.
Ardakani and his co-conspirators used a "web of foreign companies to accomplish their obfuscation and evasion efforts," the Justice Department alleged. It is unclear how many co-conspirators were alleged to have been involved.
In one instance, according to the charges, Ardakani and Lam "caused an unwitting French company to purchase from a U.S. company several pieces of analog-to-digital converters with applications in wireless and broadband communications, radar and satellite subsystems, mul
The United States took aim at Tehran's drone industry Tuesday, deploying sanctions and unsealing an indictment that target a procurement network present in Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia.