10 Americans Accused of Sending Arms to South Africa : Weapons: Pretoria’s armaments company is also charged. Some U.S.-made artillery fuses were later sent to Iraq and used in Gulf War.

Ten Americans and South Africa’s government-owned armaments company were charged Thursday with illegally shipping U.S.-built weapons and technology to South Africa, including artillery fuses later sent on to Iraq and used against U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf War.

A federal grand jury in Philadelphia also accused James H. Guerin, chief executive of the Pennsylvania company allegedly at the center of the scheme, of engaging in massive money-laundering and fraud to falsely inflate the company’s sales, costs and profits before it merged with Britain’s third-largest defense contractor in 1987.

The indictments, returned Wednesday and unsealed Thursday, also named seven South Africans as defendants and alleged that more than $30 million worth of U.S.-made munitions and other restricted items were exported illegally to South Africa between 1978 and 1989.

In a statement, U.S. Atty. Michael M. Baylson’s office said that Iraq was among the Third World countries that ultimately received U.S. weapons and technology under the alleged conspiracy between International Signal & Control Group of Lancaster, Pa., and Armscor, the South African-owned armaments concern.

But the allegations concerning Iraq’s eventual receipt of the items did not appear central to the criminal charges alleged in the two indictments.

Joseph A. Tate, Guerin’s attorney, said there is no evidence that Guerin or anyone else at ISC shipped goods to Iraq or even knew that the goods had ended up there. Tate said Guerin had entered “a plea agreement” with the government and is cooperating with investigators.

At a briefing in Washington, Carol B. Hallett, commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service, which took part in the investigation, showed reporters a battery found in a fuse of an artillery shell in Iraq that she said was traced back by its lot number to ISC.

John E. Hensley, assistant Customs commissioner for enforcement, said there is “intelligence” information of other ISC-supplied items ending up in Iraq, but that this could not be proved in court.

And FBI Director William S. Sessions, in a written statement, said: “This case is particularly disturbing because these arms were used against our own troops as they valiantly fought to free the people of Kuwait.”

Under one indictment, Guerin was alleged to have conspired from 1978 to September, 1989, to design a massive international fraud and money-laundering operation that defrauded Ferranti, the British company that merged with ISC.

Guerin also was charged with directing a scheme to help Armscor evade a U.N. arms embargo on South Africa by selling restricted U.S. munitions and weapons technology through front companies and using Swiss bank accounts. Armscor was set up by South Africa as its independent arms industry after the United Nations embargoed arms shipments to that country.

The grand jury alleged that Armscor relied on a network of South African front companies and cooperation of South African corporations to obtain from foreign companies and individuals munitions and sophisticated components for its embargoed arms industry.

Besides Guerin, 61, of Naples, Fla., who faces a maximum of 61 years imprisonment and a $2.75 million fine if convicted, the American defendants included three Californians:

* Robert Clyde Ivy, 62, of Lancaster, Calif., a former Armscor executive, who could face maximum punishment of 515 years in prison and a $44 million fine if convicted.

* Lawrence Resch, 51, of San Clemente, former business consultant to ISC, who could face a maximum of 15 years imprisonment and a $750,000 fine.

* James Russell, 58, a former Southern Californian who lives in Johannesburg and could face 55 years in prison and a $3.2 million fine.