Connecticut Business Owner Sentenced for Export Violation

John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that IMRAN KHAN, 44, of North Haven, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to three years of probation, the first six months of which KHAN must serve in home confinement, for violating U.S. export law.  Judge Underhill also ordered KHAN to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $3,000 fine.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from at least 2012 to December 2016, KHAN and two of his family members engaged in a scheme to purchase goods that were controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) and to export those goods without a license to Pakistan, in violation of the EAR.  Through companies conducting business as Brush Locker Tools, Kauser Enterprises-USA and Kauser Enterprises-Pakistan, the three defendants received orders from a Pakistani company that procured materials and equipment for the Pakistani military, requesting them to procure specific products that were subject to the EAR.  When U.S. manufacturers asked about the end-user for a product, the defendants either informed the manufacturer that the product would remain in the U.S. or completed an end-user certification indicating that the product would not be exported.

After the products were purchased, they were shipped by the manufacturer to the defendants in Connecticut.  The products were then shipped to Pakistan on behalf of either the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (“PAEC”), the Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (“SUPARCO”), or the National Institute of Lasers & Optronics (“NILOP”), all of which were listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List.  The defendants never obtained a license to export any item to the designated entities even though they knew that a license was required prior to export.  The defendants received the proceeds for the sale of export-controlled items through wire transactions to a U.S. bank account that the defendants controlled.

On June 1, 2017, KHAN pleaded guilty to one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.  In pleading guilty, he specifically admitted that, between August 2012 and January 2013, he procured, received and exported to PAEC an Alpha Duo Spectrometer without a license to do so.

On March 5, 2018, KHAN’s father, Muhammad Ismail, and his brother, Kamran Khan, each pleaded guilty to one count of international money laundering, for causing funds to be transferred from Pakistan to the U.S. in connection with the export control violations.  In pleading guilty, Ismail and Kamran Khan specifically admitted that, between January and July 2013, they procured, received and exported to SUPARCO, without a license to do so, certain bagging film that is used for advanced composite fabrication and other high temperature applications where dimensional stability, adherence to sealant tapes and uniform film gage are essential.  The proceeds for the sale of the bagging film was wired from Pakistan to the defendants in the U.S.

On July 18, 2018, Judge Underhill sentenced both Muhammad Ismail and Kamran Kahn to 18 months of imprisonment.  Ismail and Kamran Khan are both citizens of Pakistan and lawful permanent residents of the U.S.

This matter was investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacabed Rodriguez-Coss in coordination with Trial Attorney Scott McCulloch of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES).