In a statement Thursday, the Southern District Attorney’s Office in New York announced that an Iranian businessman was sentenced to six months in prison for violating US sanctions against Iran.

The US Department of Justice has announced that Behzad Pourqanad is one of three defendants in the case. The other two defendants in the case, Alireza Shekari, and Farzin Faridmanesh are now fugitives.

The three were exporting “several tons” of carbon fiber materials from a third country route to Iran with the help of an American dealer between 2008 and 2013. They had falsely stated the contents of these shipments in the export documents as acrylic.

The regime’s trafficker resided in Iran during these transactions and was transferred to the US after being arrested in Germany.

The Iranian citizen pleaded guilty on 29 August to complicity in circumventing US sanctions against Iran.

The US Justice Department had issued a statement admitting that Behzad Pourqanad had admitted “being convicted of participating in a conspiracy to export carbon fiber from the United States to Iran between 2008 and 2013”. Carbon fiber is used in the rocket industry, space engineering, uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Separately, the US Department of Commerce has blacklisted companies, entities, and individuals who violated Iran’s sanctions and helped produce Syria’s weapons of mass destruction.

The action against these companies and individuals is because they support chemical and biological weapons activities in Syria and send US equipment to Iran without authorization.

US officials have repeatedly warned that the US will boycott any banned trade with Iran.

The new US sanctions prohibit these companies and individuals from buying equipment from US companies without the permission of the US government.

The Department said that, Al Ras Gate General Trading Company, Bestway Line FZCO and six other entities that deliberately and unauthorizedly diverted US-originated equipment to Iran are added to the list. 

The Ministry of Commerce has also added to this list Fabcon International, the Muhandis Corporation, Paktech Engineers and Rohtas Enterprise to help Iran’s nuclear activities.