Man Gets 30-Month Term in Iran Export Scheme
A tearful Encino man who was once a multimillionaire architect to the Shah of Iran was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Monday for conspiring to illegally export $4 million in military radios and spare parts from the United States to the Khomeini-led government of Iran.
U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler also ordered Khosrow Shakib, 43, to pay a $10,000 fine and to undergo counseling for severe depression.
Shakib interrupted his trial after less than an hour of testimony on July 23 and the next day pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring in 1983 and 1984 to smuggle 2,000 portable radios and components, marked as telephone equipment, into Iran.
Admits Role
The Iranian expatriate said he knew it was against U.S. law to export AN-PRC-77 radios, usually made for the U.S. Army, without a license. Shakib admitted acting as a middleman between Hormoz Hezar, 51, of Beverly Hills, and Steven Sanett, an electronics parts supplier.
Before their discovery by U.S. Customs Service agents, Shakib and the others succeeded in making a dozen partial shipments of about 50 complete radios and about $500,000 worth of parts by shipping them through Canada to a West German company owned by Hezar, the government said.
Sentences ranging from two years in prison to probation were decreed for Sanett and two of his employees who agreed to testify for the government. Hezar also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in November.
Remorse Told
Shakib’s lawyer, Sherwin C. Edelberg, argued that Shakib should be placed on probation because of the remorse his client feels and because there is “no question” that Shakib will not commit the same offense again.
But Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Modisett said Shakib started the whole conspiracy and had been very active in it. He urged the court to consider the deterrent value of a prison sentence for Shakib, not only to members of the Iranian community who might be pressured to help the Khomeini government, but also to military equipment suppliers.
