Scot Who Sought Solar Parts for Libya Was ‘Entrapped,’ Lawyer Claims

The attorney for a Scottish businessman charged with violating the U.S. embargo on trade with Libya says the only deal the Scot’s firm ever transacted with Tripoli was one arranged and consummated by an undercover U.S. agent.

Patrick Fanning, the New Orleans lawyer representing Francis George Christie of Aberdeen, Scotland, also said this week that a U.S. government trade office in London was responsible for putting Christie’s firm in touch with the Louisiana company that supplied it with American-manufactured equipment sought by Libya for its government-owned oil fields.

After a six-month undercover investigation, U.S. Customs agents last week arrested Christie, 50, a principal in Christie Noble Services Inc., and George and Cheryl Smith of Gretna, La., on charges of conspiring to violate the embargo on trade with Libya imposed by President Reagan last February.

Christie remains jailed in New Orleans, where he is awaiting transfer to San Diego for arraignment on a forthcoming indictment. The Smiths were released on bail a few hours after their arrest.

The felony charges against the three business operators were the first filed under the embargo, prompted by terrorist attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports late in 1985, which American officials blamed on Libya.

Federal prosecutors allege that the Smiths’ company, Oil Patch Production Services Inc., purchased equipment from U.S. manufacturers and sold it to the Scottish firm. Christie in turn is accused of supplying the equipment to Libya through two state-controlled companies. Libya’s oil fields, built largely by U.S. oil companies, remain dependent on U.S.-made spare parts and equipment.

In an interview Tuesday, Fanning insisted that the only business Christie and the Smiths ever transacted on behalf of Libya was a $250,000 deal conceived and closed by an undercover customs agent posing as a salesman for a San Diego manufacturer--a classic case of government “entrapment.”

But federal investigators say conversations secretly recorded by the undercover agent make clear that the Smiths and Christie knowingly set out to violate the trade embargo.

When Christie’s firm first got an order for oil field equipment from Libyan officials early last year, it contacted a U.S. Commerce Department office in London and was referred to Oil Patch as a possible supplier of the products, Fanning said.

Following up on the Scottish company’s inquiry, the Smiths contacted Solar Turbines Inc. of San Diego, the manufacturer of the equipment, he said. But Solar representatives said dealing with Libya was prohibited by the presidential sanctions, and the Smiths promptly dropped out of the deal, according to Fanning.

Solar, however, alerted U.S. Customs to its contacts with Oil Patch. Special Agent Daniel Supnick was given an undercover identity as a Solar sales representative.

Ultimately, Solar sold $250,000 worth of turbines and other equipment to Libya through the Smiths and Christie Noble Services, prosecutors and Fanning agree.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip L.B. Halpern of San Diego, who is prosecuting the case, said Wednesday that secret recordings and other evidence compiled by U.S. Customs investigators undermine the defense claims of entrapment.

An affidavit by Supnick supporting the warrants for the defendants’ arrests says the Smiths, in their initial inquiries to Solar, kept the identity of their customer secret, admitting it was Libya only in later discussions with Supnick.

Beyond asserting their innocence, the Smiths and officers of the Scottish company have refused to comment on the charges.