Executive Charged in Shipping Parts to Suspected Iran Link

A federal grand jury in Utah on Friday indicted a Westlake Village businessman on 46 counts of illegally shipping F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber parts to three foreign arms merchants, including a London company that has been described as a suspected agent of Iran.

The indictment alleges that Fred R. Williams and the Elgie Corp., of which he is president, made the shipments between May, 1983, and November, 1984, without required State Department licenses, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard N. W. Lambert in Salt Lake City. Elgie makes spare parts for out-of-production U.S. military aircraft.

Also named as a defendant is Dennis D. Evans of Layton, Utah, Elgie’s vice president at the time of the alleged crimes.

The indictment does not name the destinations of the shipments. But a search-warrant application filed in Los Angeles by the U.S. Customs Service said Elgie was suspected of sending parts to companies in West Germany and London. Customs agents in November searched Elgie’s 27,000-square-foot plant in Camarillo looking for evidence in the case.

Plant Near Ogden

Lambert said the U.S. attorney’s office in Salt Lake City handled the case because Elgie has a plant near Ogden, where the indictment was returned. He said he believes Elgie recently closed the Camarillo plant.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $100,000 fine. The two men will be arraigned in Ogden on Sept. 6, Lambert said.

Williams and Evans could not be reached for comment Friday. But, in January, the Salt Lake City attorney who represents Elgie, Charles C. Brown, denied that there had been any illegal shipments. Brown said that “just a very small percentage” of Elgie’s production “ever went to this company in London,” and that Elgie executives had no idea that the company was suspected of buying for Iran.

The Iran connection is mentioned in the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to support the search of Elgie’s Camarillo facility. The affidavit said the London company, Aircraft Equipment International Ltd., was under investigation by U.S. and British customs officials for “representing or acting as the purchasing agent for the Iranian government.”

Hardware Embargo

The U.S. declared an embargo on shipment of military hardware to Iran after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979. Khomeini’s government inherited many American weapons and planes, including F-4s, and has had to resort to smuggling to get spare parts.

But Lambert said Friday that “the ultimate destination of the aircraft parts referred to in the indictment is not known. . . . There is no proof that the articles in question did end up in unfriendly hands.”

Lambert said the indictment was based on federal law making it illegal to ship military equipment overseas without a license from the State Department for each shipment, regardless of the destination.

A spotlight was thrown on Elgie’s Camarillo plant in January, when police reported that a burglar had apparently climbed through the plant’s skylight and taken about 190,000 pieces of microfilmed plans for the F-4 Phantom and the A-4 Skyhawk fighter jets.