Posted on 07/30/2004 8:39:30 AM PDT by esryle
LOS ANGELES -- An Azusa, Calif.,-based company was ordered Thursday to pay a $75,000 fine for attempting to export anti-aircraft missile parts to China without the required license.
Mexpar International, which is owned by Ahmad Nahardani of Encino and Gabriela De Brea of Alta Loma, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz.
The company was charged along with Nahardani, 56, and De Brea, 62, after an investigation in which the two sold the parts to an undercover operative and tried to ship the items to China on eight occasions during 1999 and 2000, authorities said.
Last fall, a company representative entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy and one count of attempting to export converters for Hawk Missiles -- a surface-to-air missile used by the U.S. Army and the Marines -- without a license or permission from the U.S. State Department.
Prosecutors said Mexpar, originally based in Pasadena, advertised along with another Nahardani-De Brea company, Pasadena Aerospace, that they were "Experts in Exports." The companies provided a list of missile and aircraft parts for sale, prosecutors said.
Both De Brea and Nahardani also pleaded guilty in the case. They are due to be sentenced next Thursday.
All the parts were seized by U.S. Customs agents at the airport before the items could leave the country, authorities said.
A FINE? While Martha Stewart sits in prison? Oh, puh-lease.
Friends of China.....slap on the wrist...
Ahmad Nahardani... Gabriela De Brea great American patriots
$75K fine and back in business?
Oh thats right...."behind the scenes"...they are being watched..used...punished...turned...etc etc etc
kinda like the millions of illegal invaders crossing our borders year after year
You just do not get it. This is Bush's fault! Islam is for peace, this is corporate greed. So what if their names look middle-eastern, you are just a racist.
As Savage would say - Try 'Em and Fry 'Em!
datum
hrmn.
How dare those people sell technology to China! That is treason and they should be tried for it. They deserve far more than a fine.
Hopefully the court will make an example out of them at sentencing, for the edification of others who may be thinking along the same easy money lines.
With the name Ahmad.... sheesh we need to hunt these guys in earnest.
Probably someone named Mohamed.
I guess we now know what the Chinese are doing with their massive trade surplus.
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.