WASHINGTON: A Pakistani citizen, brought to the United States from Belgium, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for attempting to export sensitive technology for the Pakistani military, the US Department of Justice has said.
On Thursday, a district judge in Arizona, Rosemary Marquez, found the 71-year-old Syed Vaqar Ashraf of Lahore, guilty as charged and sent him to prison.
A Justice Department press release said that Mr Ashraf had “previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to export defence-controlled items without a licence”.
Officials at the Pakistan Embassy said that they were trying to contact relevant US authorities for more information.
“So far, we have not received a request for consular access,” said an embassy official when asked if the embassy had contacted Mr Ashraf.
The US Justice Department said Mr Ashraf attempted to procure gyroscopes and illegally ship them to Pakistan so that they could be used by the Pakistani military.
“In an effort to evade detection, Ashraf arranged for the gyroscopes to be purchased in the name of a shell company and caused the gyroscopes to be trans-shipped to Belgium,” the department added.
Gyroscope is a common device for balancing a vehicle and is used both in cars and aircraft.
The Justice Department said that after the purchase Mr Ashraf travelled to Belgium to inspect the gyroscopes and arrange for their final transportation to Pakistan.
On Aug 26, 2014, the Belgian Federal Police arrested Mr Ashraf at the request of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations agents, who had been conducting an undercover investigation of his activities.
US agents and Belgium Federal Police investigated the case.
The US media reported in January that Mr Ashraf was accused of five different felonies, all related to international trafficking laws. They include conspiracy to export controlled defence articles, laundering money and smuggling goods from the United States.
According to a grand jury indictment filed in December last year, Mr Ashraf was CEO of I&E International, Lahore.
He allegedly made contact with someone he believed was a representative of a Tucson company that exported unmanned aerial vehicles. According to an earlier indictment, filed in 2014, that person was actually an undercover agent for Homeland Security Investigations.
A recent indictment showed that Mr Ashraf wired funds and falsified documents to conceal the items he wanted to receive, over a two-year period from June 2012 to August 2014.
In 2014, Mr Ashraf forwarded emails requesting gyroscopes for UAVs, identified as a model VG 34-0803-3 gyroscope. This particular gyroscope is designed for long endurance missions flown by medium sized multi-payload UAVs. It is a piece of equipment regulated by the State Department and requires licensing to ship to Pakistan.
Mr Ashraf allegedly filled out fraudulent documents in the name of a shell company, Innovative Links. The true customer, according to HSI, was the Pakistan Advanced Engineering Organisation, a branch of the Pakistani Ministry of Defence.
Mr Ashraf then wired four payments totalling $60,000 to Tucson, Arizona. He wanted 18 gyroscopes and was willing to pay more than $340,000.
In February 2014, Mr Ashraf ordered ten laser diodes to outfit on UAVs. The type he wanted also requires licensing for shipment to Pakistan. www.dawn.com/news/1281655/pakistani-sent-to-us-prison-for-buying-sensitive-technology
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