MIAMI, FL --- Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Gordon Pomeroy, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement, and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Miami Field Office, announced that defendant Yi-Lan Chen, a/k/a “Kevin Chen,” 40, a Taiwan passport holder, was sentenced on Friday, August 27, 2010, by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan to forty-two months (three and a half years) in prison on charges of conspiring to illegally export dual-use commodities to Iran. Chen’s corporation and co-defendant, Landstar Tech Company Limited, a Taiwan corporation, was sentenced to one year of probation.
Chen had earlier pled guilty to all three counts of the Information filed against him, and Landstar Tech pled guilty to Count 1 of the Information. Count 1 of the Information charges conspiracy to export and cause the export of commodities from the United States to the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of the Embargo imposed upon that country by the United States (“the U.S.-Iran Embargo”) and in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Title 50, United States Code, Section 1705(a). Counts 2 and 3 of the Information charge attempts to export and cause the export of commodities from the United States to the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of the U.S.-Iran Embargo and in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
According to documents filed with the court during the plea hearing, Chen, by and through Landstar Tech Company Ltd, communicated and coordinated with co-conspirators in the United States, Iran, Hong Kong, and elsewhere and facilitated the attempted export of dual-use goods from the United States to Iran. In so doing, Chen communicated with and took requests for U.S.- manufactured goods from customers in Iran. Chen and Landstar Tech then purchased those U.S.-manufactured goods from U.S. companies and misrepresented to those U.S. companies the ultimate end-user or consignee of the goods.
With respect to the particular items charged in the Information, Chen made arrangements with a federal agent acting in an undercover capacity to have those U.S. goods hand-delivered by the undercover agent to Chen in Guam, a territory of the United States. Chen then planned to transport those goods back to Taiwan and then on to his customers in Iran. Chen and Landstar Tech also received payment for the purchase and shipment of the U.S. goods from his customers in Iran and then used funds received from the customers in Iran to pay the U.S. companies for those goods.
Specifically, Chen and Landstar Tech conspired to export and cause the export of and attempted to export and cause the export of 120 circular hermetic connectors (Model MIL-C-81703/Part No. 8403-7-50P) and 8,500 glass to metal seals of various item numbers. The circular hermetic connectors and the glass to metal seals were manufactured in the United States and are dual-use commodities. That is, they are goods or technologies that have commercial application, but also could make a significant contribution to the military or nuclear potential of other nations and could be detrimental to the foreign policy or national security of the United States.
Chen ultimately failed to deliver the circular hermetic connectors or the glass to metal seals to his customers in Iran due to law enforcement intervention. That is, U.S. Department of Commerce agents seized the first attempted shipment of 60 glass to metal seals prior to their export from the United States. And, federal agents from the United States Department of Commerce and the United States Department of Homeland Security and ICE special agents arrested Chen in Guam before he took delivery of the 60 additional circular hermetic seals or the 8,500 glass to metal seals from a federal law enforcement agent acting in an undercover capacity.
Chen has been in federal custody since his arrest in February of this year.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement, and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations in Miami for their work on this investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Arango.