By: Brooke Driver
On October 18, 2012, RH International, LLC, and its owner, Mohammed Reza Hajian, were convicted of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. RH International was specifically accused of knowingly violating the IEEPA and the Iranian Transactions Regulations by exporting computer and related equipment from the United States to Iran through the U.A.E without attaining the necessary license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Based on the facts that:
- RH management purposefully violated customs laws and
- The company did not disclose its violations to BIS
RH International was sentenced to:
- 10-year denial of export privileges
- 12 months of unsupervised probation
- $400 fine
Because the company’s owner and operator plead guilty to direct involvement in and knowledge of RH’s violations, and because he had displayed—by exporting to Iran through the U.A.E.—an affinity for finding illegal loopholes, Reza was charged separately. To prevent Reza from exporting his products as an individual, rather than representative of RH, and to punish him for his actions the court sentenced him to:
- 10 years on the Denied Persons List
- 12 months of unsupervised probation
- 48 months in prison
- $100 assessment
As if these consequences weren’t severe enough, the court found a loophole of its own; instead of directly demanding a huge fine of RH International, prosecution chose to “reroute” that $10,000,000 fine to Reza himself, who will likely rethink attempting to hoodwink the US government in the future.