Man and Company Indicted for Illegal Exports to Government of India
September 2008
On September 9, 2008, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Siddabasappa Suresh and his company Rajaram Engineering Corporation for conspiring to violate the IEEPA and the EAR. Between August 2001 and June 2003 the defendants supplied the Government of India with controlled goods and technology without first obtaining the required licenses.
Rajaram Engineering Corporation sent the controlled items to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the company is within the Department of Space of the Government of India and can be found on the Entity List. VSSC is responsible for not only research and development of India’s space launch system but also ballistic missiles.
In early 2003, the Office of Export Enforcement conducted investigations whereas officials traveled to foreign countries to verify the end users of certain controlled goods. While investigating shipments of goods to India the agents uncovered the sale of these goods from a US based company, (referred to “Corporation-US in the indictment) to Rajaram located in Bangalore, India.
It was revealed later that Suresh conspired with employees of the Indian based-subsidary of “Corporation-US” to evade the US export control laws by transshipping the goods through Rajaram to VSSC. Approximately 25 shipments were made within the 3 years and were valued at $136,000. All items involved were high tech complex electronic instruments for high performance testing and monitoring.
It is still unclear why the “Corporation-US” has remained unnamed throughout the entire process and why they and their Indian-based subsidiary have not been indicted on any charges.
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