Washington (CNN) -- An Iranian citizen who lived in California was sentenced in federal court in Chicago Monday to 51 months in prison for illegally trying to send missile parts from the U.S. to Iran, federal prosecutors announced.
Davoud Baniameri, 38, of Woodland Hills, California, was sentenced nearly three months after he pleaded guilty to two felony charges for his plot to ship restricted equipment through the United Arab Emirates to Iran.
The Justice Department says the case is the 13th in the past year in which one or more individuals were prosecuted for trying to circumvent restrictions on defense-related materials prohibited for sale to entities in Iran.
Baniameri was prosecuted in Illinois because that's where a company is that he bought equipment from that he intended for Iran. What he did not know at the time was that U.S. federal law enforcement authorities operated the firm.
Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were joined in the investigation by agencies within the IRS, the Commerce Department and the Defense Department.
Prosecutors said Baniameri was contacted by a co-conspirator in Iran, Syed Mousavi, in 2008. He was interested in 10 connector adaptors for TOW and TOW2 missile systems. He also requested radio test sets. Mousavi, who is believed to be in Iran, has also been indicted, but is beyond the reach of U.S. agents.
A third alleged co-conspirator, Andro Telemi, 40, a naturalized Iranian also living in California, is free while he awaits trial in Chicago. Telemi and Baniameri were arrested September 9, 2009.
