Posted on 08/26/2006 7:28:05 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Mitutoyo falsifies Iranian recipient's name to get export permission
(Kyodo) _ Precision measuring device maker Mitutoyo Corp. falsified the name of the Iranian corporate recipient of a high-tech measuring machine in 1997 in filing an application document for an export permit from the Japanese government, investigative sources said Saturday.
Mitutoyo entered a fictitious corporate name in the application document's section for the machine's importer instead of Pars Switch Co., the real recipient, in seeking the permit from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the sources said.
The manufacturer exported the equipment that year via Seian, a trading house based in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, to Pars Switch, which was one of the companies put by MITI on its list of foreign corporations suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction. Pars Switch is suspected of involvement in Iran's nuclear development program, they said.
The sources at the Metropolitan Police Department said they believe Mitutoyo fabricated the corporate name of the machine's recipient to prevent MITI from rejecting the application for its export permit.
Mitutoyo entered the real address of Pars Switch on the application document, although it filled out the same dossier's section for the importer's name with the bogus name, according to the sources with knowledge of investigations by the Tokyo police's Public Safety Division.
It appears to have fabricated the name of the recipient of its equipment on the dossier on instructions from Seian and Pars Switch, which appear to have held consultations beforehand concerning the falsification scheme, they said. ADVERTISEMENT
On Friday, the police raided Seian's Tokyo office on suspicion of illegally selling the precision measuring instruments in 1997 to Pars Switch.
The same day, the police also arrested Mitutoyo's current and former presidents as well as three other executives on suspicion of exporting two high-tech measuring devices convertible for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons to Malaysia in 2001 without government permission.
One of the two in-line coordinate measuring machines was found in a nuclear facility in Libya by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors during their 2003-2004 checks.
The machines, known as three-dimensional machines, can be used to manufacture centrifuge machines to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Their export is subject to restrictions under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law and the Export Trade Control Ordinance.
Japanese investigators found that Mitutoyo has used two different names for the same three-dimensional measuring machine that eventually ended up in Libya's hands. The machine allegedly traveled via the nuclear black market run by Pakistani nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The investigators believe Mitutoyo used the separate calling names for the same machine in addition to fabricating figures on the machine's capabilities to make it appear that it has lower capabilities than it actually has, in order to bypass Japan's export regulations on such dual-use high-tech products, the sources said.
In January 2000, the Tokyo police's Public Safety Division searched the Tokyo-based trading house Seian over alleged links with another trading firm, Sun Beam K.K., whose former directors were arrested on suspicion of exporting components for sighting device for antitank rocket launchers to Iran.
The documents the police seized in the 2000 case as well as the Mitutoyo dossiers it confiscated in connection with its high-tech machine exports supported suspicions that Mitutoyo's three-dimensional measuring machines and several other precision measuring instruments had ended up in the hands of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics between 1984 and 1992.
Seian is believed to have exported Japanese high-tech products procured from companies other than Mitutoyo to Iran on orders from people with links with the Iranian military, the sources said.
In February, the Tokyo police raided Mitutoyo on suspicion of exporting 3-D precision measuring machines to China and Thailand in 2001 and 2002.
The police sources have said the two Mitutoyo-made 3-D machines were ordered by Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia, suspected of being been at the core of Khan's nuclear black market. One of the two devices was shipped via Dubai on an Iranian-registered ship and eventually reached Libya.
Mitutoyo, based in the industrial city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, just southwest of Tokyo, is a leading maker of high-tech precision measuring machines and runs a network of research institutes and factories in more than 20 countries.
Ping!
1997 - It's a bit late now
Mitsutoyo. Bad boy. Baaaad BOY!
Ya, but it's capitalism...Free Trade...
Give them a fair trial and if they're found guilty, put 'em up against a wall, shoot them, and feed the bodies to some hungry pigs.
Ah yes, AQ Khan again - and in 1997......Who was running things in 1997?? Wasn't it the guy who had the wife with cankles?
That would be Willian "Sukin Syn" Clinton.
Nicely put. Lenin was right about the last Capitalist selling the Communist the rope to hang him with. It is likely that the nukes in North Korea now aimed at Japan also were developed with technology provided by these insanely greedy fools.
If John Kerry or the NY Times would like to apologize now, I'll leave my answering machine on for them.
Send the bodies to Wu (if you aren't watching Deadwood, start).
I got a 12" Mit dial caliper that only leaves it's case on special occasions. Does that make me a bad person? :-)
Those clazy plicks!
Also, this isn't "Free Trade" since the company had to falsify customs documents in order to circumvent trade restrictions.
I refuse to buy anything Toshiba.
Guess I'll add Mitutoyo to my list. ( though it's unlikely that I would be in the market for precision measuring devices.)
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.