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 Behrouz Dolatzadeh was arrested in the Czech Republic last year
and held in custody. He was convicted there in June of attempted
arms trafficking and attempting to violate sanctions on Iran. But he
was released in September after an appeals court overturned his
conviction and the United States failed to request his extradition,
according to interviews with Czech officials.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix, Arizona,
where Dolatzadeh was indicted, declined to comment on why no
extradition request was filed. Dolatzadeh's defense lawyer in
Prague, Michal Marini, says he believes Dolatzadeh is back in Iran.
Iranian corporate filings show Dolatzadeh was appointed in recent
years to the boards of three tech companies connected to a massive
business empire controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's top
cleric and most powerful man. The conglomerate's full name in
Persian is Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam.
Reuters last month published a three-part series
(www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/) detailing how Setad has become
one of the most powerful institutions in Iran largely through the
systematic seizure and sale of thousands of properties belonging to
ordinary Iranians. Iran's state news agency denounced the Reuters
series as "disinformation" intended to undermine public trust in the
Islamic Republic's institutions.
Asked about Dolatzadeh, a spokesman for Setad said in an email, "We
categorically deny any links to Mr. Dolatzadeh and have no knowledge
about his whereabouts." He added, "We also strongly deny that Setad
or any company in which Setad directly or indirectly holds any
interest has had, directly or indirectly, any involvement in arms
transactions."
The Setad spokesman said none of the companies on which Dolatzadeh
was appointed as a board member "is owned directly or indirectly by
Setad or any of its entities."
But documents reviewed by Reuters and Iran corporate filings show
that the companies Dolatzadeh joined are connected to each other
through their boards, and are all linked to Setad.
SETAD LINKS
Those companies include Mobin Khavar Technology Co, which is a
subsidiary of a Setad holding called Iran Mobin Electronic
Development Co, according to corporate filings, Iran Mobin's website
and internal Iran Mobin documents reviewed by Reuters.
Dolatzadeh also joined the boards of Mobicom and First Mobin Saba
Services Co, according to corporate filings. Those two companies are
joint ventures between Setad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps, Iran's elite military unit, according to a person familiar
with the matter. Both Setad and the Guards hold stakes in numerous
sectors of the Iranian economy and sometimes form joint ventures
together, such as when they acquired a majority stake in Iran's
largest telecommunications company in 2009.
An internal PowerPoint presentation by Iran Mobin, which features an
organizational chart titled "SETAD at a Glance," shows that the
electronics company is a unit of Setad. The presentation also
includes Mobin Khavar under a list of "Iran Mobin companies." And
Mobin Khavar's website states that Iran Mobin is "affiliated with"
Setad.
A spokesman for Iran Mobin did not respond to requests for comment
about its ownership.
Corporate filings show Iran Mobin representatives sit on the boards
of Mobin Khavar and Mobicom. Meanwhile, a Mobicom representative
last year was named managing director and a board member of First
Mobin Saba Services.
ASSAULT RIFLES
Dolatzadeh was indicted in February 2012 by a federal grand jury in
Arizona on charges that included conspiracy to violate the Arms
Export Control Act and attempting to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.
He is accused of violating the act by not applying for or obtaining
an export license; under sanctions regulations, exporting weapons to
Iran is prohibited. Court filings show no evidence Dolatzadeh
responded to the charges.
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According to the U.S. indictment, around January 2011 an unnamed
individual acting on behalf of Dolatzadeh emailed an unidentified
company in Arizona seeking a quote for 3,500 M-4 assault rifles. An
undercover agent for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
posing as a sales representative, contacted the go-between and began
negotiating a sale. They agreed on a price of $1,850 per rifle and a
"transshipment scheme to Syria."
The indictment states that in October 2011, Dolatzadeh travelled to
the Czech Republic to inspect some of the weapons. He signed a
contract with an unidentified seller to purchase 2,600 rifles made
by Colt Defense LLC and 400 rifles made by Bushmaster Firearms
International, which were to be "imported into Iran." He later
signed a new, modified contract to purchase 500 Colt M-4 rifles. He
wired 40,000 euros ($55,000) to a Czech bank account to initiate the
transaction, the indictment states.
Spokespeople for Colt and Bushmaster did not respond to requests for
comment.
Dolatzadeh agreed to travel again to the Czech Republic to inspect
the rifles before they were shipped to Iran, according to the
indictment. He was arrested there in February 2012 and placed in
custody. A spokesman for the Justice Ministry in Prague said U.S.
authorities requested that Dolatzadeh be held following his arrest,
but never filed an extradition request.
CONVICTION OVERTURNED
A Czech court convicted him on local charges of attempted arms
smuggling and sanctions violations and last June sentenced him to
3-1/2 years in prison, according to a spokeswoman for the municipal
court in Prague. But in September, he was freed after an appeals
court overturned the conviction, determining it was a case of
entrapment by U.S. and Czech authorities who had lured Dolatzadeh to
the Czech Republic to commit a crime. Last month, Czech prosecutors
appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.
"Regarding the prosecutor's appeal to the Supreme Court, this does
not change anything, because according to Czech law Mr. Dolatzadeh
was fully acquitted by the court of appeals and this must be
respected," said his lawyer, Marini, at law firm Broz & Sokol &
Novak. The prosecutor's office declined to comment.
As for the outstanding indictment in the United States, Marini said
his view "is that according to the European Convention on Human
Rights Mr. Dolatzadeh cannot have another trial in the U.S., because
he was fully acquitted by Czech courts." The U.S. Attorney's office
in Phoenix declined to comment.
The Arizona case apparently is not the first time Dolatzadeh was
indicted in the United States on attempted smuggling charges. In
1995, Behrouz Dolatzadeh, identified as an official with Iran's
Ministry of Defence, was one of seven people indicted by a federal
grand jury in Ohio for allegedly conspiring to ship thousands of
dollars worth of U.S.-made radio communications equipment to Iran.
The spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix said
prosecutors there believe the Ohio case involved the same individual
who was indicted last year.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Columbus, Ohio, told
Reuters, "There is nothing in the files available to us right now that would
indicate the charges were ever dropped. ($1 = 0.7271 euros)
(Additional
reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague and Babak Dehghanpisheh in
Beirut; editing by Simon Robinson)
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