4 Are Linked to Exporting of High-Tech Gear to Iran

Two top officials of Beechcraft West Germany and the president of an Arizona aviation firm have been charged with illegally exporting sophisticated radar-navigation systems to Iran, according to indictments unsealed Wednesday.

A salesman for Beechcraft also was indicted. He and one of the Beechcraft officials were charged in an unsealed indictment in 1986 and secretly pleaded guilty so they could participate in a complex “sting” operation run through San Diego-based Teledyne Ryan Electronics. More indictments were returned by a federal grand jury in September, 1987, and again last Friday, but all were kept secret until Wednesday, when the president of Marsh Aviation Co. Inc. was arrested at the firm’s corporate offices in Mesa, Ariz.

Not a Routine Order

The equipment was manufactured by Teledyne Ryan, whose officials became suspicious because it was not a routine request from a West German company and alerted the CIA, sparking the sting that began in 1986 and was run by the Customs Service.

Two shipments of the equipment worth about $200,000 were believed to have reached Iran before the undercover operation got started, U.S. Atty. Peter K. Nunez said Wednesday.

Beechcraft West Germany, formally called Beechcraft Vertrieb Und Service, is a West German corporation with a franchise to sell, service and distribute aircraft products manufactured by Beechcraft Aircraft Corp. of Wichita, Kan.

Nunez said there is no evidence that the U.S. firm participated in the scheme.

Robert Steenberge, president of Teledyne Ryan Electronics, said Wednesday that the first two shipments were sent to West Germany at the direction of the CIA, whose officials told him they wanted to monitor the deal before taking further action.

“Once the Customs team became involved in the case, we stopped any future shipments,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip B. Halpern, who is in charge of the case. He said the first two shipments were not stopped because there was “no hard evidence” that Iran was the ultimate destination.

Beechcraft West Germany had provided “very, very believable end use information and a very, very good cover story,” Halpern said. He described the equipment as “a state of the art, lightweight, fixed-antenna radar navigational system” produced primarily for U.S. military use but available for sale to firms in certain countries, such as West Germany.

The equipment supplies aircraft with “an accurate, independent method for quickly responding to military orders,” he said. Called the Doppler Velocity Sensor, the system is capable of supplying data for the operation of weapons delivery systems, he said.

The first indictments, returned Nov. 14, 1986, charged Bernd Pleuger, managing director of Beechcraft West Germany, and Juergen Zimmermann, a salesman, with conspiracy and illegal exportation. They pleaded guilty in a secret proceeding and cooperated with the sting operation, apparently continuing in their positions with Beechcraft as the investigation developed.

Hans Schneider, the owner and president of Beechcraft West Germany was indicted Sept. 25, 1987, along with his company. Nunez said Wednesday that Schneider is a fugitive and that prosecutors are pessimistic about the chances of having him extradited.

The final set of indictments was returned Friday and identified Stilwell and his company.

Beechcraft West Germany received some of the electronic equipment directly from Teledyne Ryan and some from Marsh Aviation, which bought it from Teledyne Ryan, Halpern said.

Roots Date to 1983

The conspiracy dates back to 1983, when Zimmermann and Pleuger began negotiating with Teledyne Ryan, according to the indictments. Schneider purchased Beechcraft West Germany in February, 1985, as part of the conspiracy, which was carried out at his direction, the indictments say.

All three West Germans misled Teledyne Ryan by claiming that the components were to be installed on a helicopter owned by a West German company.

After receiving $230,000 from Beechcraft West Germany, Teledyne Ryan sent the parts to West Germany in two shipments--one on March 1, 1986, and the other on June 11, 1986.

On Oct. 6, 1986, Zimmermann and Pleuger promised to give $10,000 to a Customs agent who was posing as an assistant commissioner of Customs, the indictment says. They wanted to ensure that Customs would not investigate the activities of Beechcraft West Germany, the indictment says.

Zimmermann and Pleuger also were charged with attempting to bribe David Supnick, a Customs agent who posed as an international marketing executive for a defense contractor.

Stilwell and Marsh Aviation were involved in a conspiracy to ship arms to Iran through West Germany beginning some time in 1983 and ending in December, 1987, the indictment says. In 1986 and 1987, Stilwell negotiated for shipments of Teledyne Ryan equipment to be sent through him to Beechcraft West Germany, according to the indictments.

Nunez said he is not concerned about potential defense arguments centered on the actions of former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who organized shipments of arms to Iran at about the same time and with the approval of high Reagan Administration officials.

The West Germans and the American apparently had no political motive, said Halpern: “They were doing it solely for profit.”