Accused Thief Cites Iran Arms Deal in Plea Motion

One of the accused masterminds of a ring that smuggled stolen Navy jet fighter parts to Iran says he never would have made a plea bargain with federal prosecutors had he known that U.S. officials were secretly selling arms to Iran.

Edgardo Agustin, who pleaded guilty in July to four felony counts in the funneling of $7 million in F-14 jet parts to the Persian Gulf nation, said in court papers filed Monday that disclosures of the Reagan Administration’s dealings with Iran were grounds for allowing him to withdraw his plea.

Lawyers for Agustin, 46, also contend that the attorney who represented him in earlier stages of the case misled him as to the sentence he was likely to receive and failed to fully inform him of the government’s accusations in the case.

A hearing is scheduled next week on Agustin’s request to change his plea to not guilty and go to trial on 55 counts of conspiracy, interstate transport of stolen federal property, exportation of military equipment and making false statements.

Prosecutors, however, will seek Agustin’s immediate sentencing. At a hearing in November where Agustin indicated his desire to withdraw his guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Leland Nielsen said he was inclined to reject the request.

Across the country, revelations about the government’s covert supplying of arms to Iran have disrupted prosecutions of individuals accused of illegally smuggling military supplies to the war-torn country, in violation of embargoes stemming from the seizure in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant students.

In San Diego, attorneys for other members of the ring allegedly led by Agustin and his brother Franklin Agustin have not emphasized the Iran- contra scandal in sentencing hearings, but they say the disclosures may have resulted in lighter sentences for their clients. Nielsen, however, has insisted in court that the covert dealings have had no effect on the case.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip Halpern reiterated Monday his contention that the F-14 matter primarily was a theft case. That the stolen parts ended up in Iranian hands, he says, figured little in the charges against Edgardo Agustin.

In particular, only one of the counts to which Agustin pleaded guilty involved the illegal exportation of arms, Halpern noted. That count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison under Agustin’s plea bargain with the government, while theft and conspiracy charges expose him to an additional 25 years in jail.

Agustin and his lawyers, however, argue that the fact Agustin could not have known about the government’s arms dealing in July, when he entered his guilty plea, was reason enough to allow him to withdraw his admission of guilt.

“Had I realized in July of 1986 that the United States government was selling arms to Iran, I would never have entered a plea,” Agustin says in a statement filed in court.

“Recent revelations in the press indicate that the United States government itself was exporting arms to Iran while simultaneously prosecuting individuals for doing what it was doing secretly,” defense attorney Lynn Ball adds. That Agustin did not know of the Administration’s dealings “in and of itself should constitute a fair and just reason for him to withdraw his pleas,” Ball argues.

In his statement, Agustin said he was unaware at the time he pleaded guilty that prosecutors were alleging he was the kingpin of a ring responsible for transferring parts worth millions of dollars to Iran. He says he simply followed the advice of his New York attorney, Lonn Berney, in pleading guilty, and believed that prosecutors had informally agreed that he would be sentenced to no more than three to five years in prison, though his written plea agreement allows a maximum sentence of 27 years.

Halpern said Agustin might have a right to withdraw his plea if he and his attorneys can prove that he was misled by Berney into entering a guilty plea. “That’s the only grounds which, if true, would have merit,” Halpern said.