Extradited from the UK to the US for alleged Iran export control violations.

This week, following his extradition from the UK, Saeid Haji Agha Mousae appeared in federal court in Chicago to face charges of conspiring to evade export controls to Iran.

It is alleged that between 2014-2018, Mousaei, when manager of Dubai-based company Millennium Product Company LLC, devised and participated in a scheme to obtain controlled electronics with military applications, including signals equipment like oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers, for export and re-export to Iran. 

KEY FACTS

1. Iranian national Saeid Haji Agha Mousaei, 53, made his initial appearance yesterday in Chicago federal court following his extradition from the United Kingdom to face charges for his role in a years-long conspiracy to evade U.S. export restrictions and trans-ship advanced U.S. electronic testing technology to Iran using third-party countries.
2. According to court documents, Mousaei was a Dubai-based defendant company Millennium Product Company LLC (MPC) manager.
3. As alleged, from in or about January 2014 through at least August 2018, Mousaei, MPC and others devised and participated in a scheme to obtain controlled electronics with military applications, including signals equipment like oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers, for export and re-export to Iran.
4. As alleged, Mousaei and his co-defendants understood export restrictions on U.S.-origin goods to prohibited destinations like Iran and falsely represented to U.S. distributors that their purchases would remain in countries other than Iran, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Armenia, where the defendants controlled unnamed companies.
5. In reality, after arranging for distributors of U.S.-origin goods to export shipments to the UAE, the defendants allegedly transhipped goods from the UAE to Iran without the required license and violating U.S. law.
6. Mousaei and MPC are each charged with
1. Conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of five [X5] years in prison;
2. Smuggling goods from the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison;
3. Wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and
4. Violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
7. Mousaei was arrested in the United Kingdom on Jan. 24, 2023, pursuant to an Interpol diffusion notice.

Updated July 23, 2024

SOURCES

• [press%20release]press release = https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-national-extradited-united-states-alleged-scheme-illicitly-ship-sophisticated
• indictment = https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-07/saeid_mousaei_indictment_unsealed.pdf