The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the Office of Export Enforcement of the United States Department of Commerce announced that an officer of Falcon Instrumentation and Machinery FZE, an Iranian corporation formerly known as FIMCO (Falcon/FIMCO), entered a plea of guilty on behalf of the corporation to conspiracy to evade export licensing requirements.

The conspiracy was in connection with an attempt to smuggle to Iran a machine with possible military as well as civilian applications.Falcon/FIMCO, is a subsidiary of Zagros Limited, a British Virgin Islands corporation. The guilty plea was entered before United States District Court Magistrate Judge Susan E. Schwab.In December 2012, a federal grand jury in Harrisburg charged Falcon/FIMCO in a sealed indictment made public today.In April 2014, an American company, Hetran Inc., an engineering and manufacturing corporation in Orwigsburg and its president, Helmut Oertmann, were charged with participating in the conspiracy.Hetran manufactured a large horizontal lathe, also described as a bar peeling machine ("peeler"), valued at more than $800,000 and weighing in excess of 50,000 pounds.The machine is used in the production of high grade steel for the manufacture of automobile and aircraft parts.Under U.S. law and regulations, American companies are forbidden to ship "dual use" items (items with civilian as well as military or proliferation applications), such as the peeler, to Iran without first obtaining a license from the U.S. government.Aware that it was unlikely that such a license would be granted, Falcon/FIMCO, which does business in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and other alleged co-conspirators agreed to falsely state on the shipping documents that the end-user of the peeler was Crescent International Trade and Services FZE, an affiliated company, knowing that the machine would subsequently be shipped to Iran after being off-loaded in Dubai.In June 2012, the peeling machine to be shipped from Hetran to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, fraudulently listing Crescent as the end-user, knowing that the shipment was ultimately being sent by Falcon/FIMCO to Iran in violation of federal law.The Office of Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce detected the shipment and ordered that it be re-delivered to the United States.As part of its plea agreement with the United States, Falcon/FIMCO agreed that the government would recommend a $250,000 criminal fine.The company also has agreed under a settlement with BIS to pay a $837,500 civil penalty to the U.S. Department of Commerce, of which it must pay $587,500 out-of-pocket, with the remaining $250,000 suspended for two years.The suspended portion of the civil penalty will be waived thereafter so long as Falcon/FIMCO complies with the terms of the plea agreement and any criminal sentence and satisfies certain additional conditions.Falcon/FIMCO will also be subject to a two-year suspended denial of its export privileges.In December 2014, Helmut Oertmann and Hetran were sentenced by Judge Kane to 12 months' probation; Oertmann and Hetran were ordered as part of a settlement with BIS to pay a penalty of $837,500 with $337,500 of that amount paid out-of-pocket and the remainder conditionally suspended, which penalty Judge Kane adopted as to Oertmann and Hetran.The other indicted company, Crescent International Trade and Services FZE.The three Iranian suspects who served as officers of Falcon/FIMCO, Khosrow Kasraei, Reza Ghoreishi, and Mujahid Ali, are presently fugitives.