Iran-Bound Satellite Technology Gear Seized : Trade: Federal agents allege $1.5 million worth of computers and communications equipment were being illegally shipped abroad, but the Costa Mesa company says no export restrictions cover the cargo.

Federal agents have seized more than $1.5 million worth of computers and satellite communications equipment that they allege were being illegally shipped to Iran by a Costa Mesa company, according to court documents.

The government further alleges that Satellite Technology Management Inc. “willfully and knowingly circumvented” the law last year by exporting another load of high-tech gear to Iran.

Satellite Technology issued a statement this week saying that no export restrictions cover the equipment that it was shipping to Iran and that it expects to resolve the trade tiff in its favor. Until then, the company said, it is revising its first-quarter earnings and revenue figures to reflect the delay of the order.

“We did not do anything improper,” Steve Strohman, the company’s senior vice president, said Wednesday. “We followed all Department of Commerce rules and regulations.”

The company, which specializes in making equipment to communicate with satellites, was searched by FBI and federal Export Enforcement agents last week in connection with the case. No charges have been filed against Satellite Technology or any of its officers.

But in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, an Export Enforcement agent states that a 40-foot ocean container was impounded May 7 just before it was to be shipped from the port of Long Beach. Inside, he said, were crates containing a sophisticated computer network system used to communicate with satellites.

Agent James W. Lowry said Satellite Technology had tried without success for the past couple of years to win an export license to ship some of its more sophisticated wares to Iran. In each case, the requests had been rejected on grounds of national security or that the systems might enhance Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Still, agents obtained documents that allegedly show that Satellite Technology shipped a Sun SPARC computer workstation to the Broadcasting Organization in Iran in March, 1992. It did so, Lowry said, by “falsely declaring the commodities to be authorized for export.”

Export Enforcement learned of Satellite Technology’s activities in January, when agents received a tip from the Santa Ana office of the FBI, the affidavit states. The agents then found out about the latest shipment headed for Iran, which they tracked to a Carson warehouse on May 3. There, they checked the export documents and found that another Sun workstation and other equipment were being illegally exported. They also found that the company had received a letter of credit for $1.6 million from an Iranian bank, court documents say.

The equipment is being held in a secured warehouse near the port while the investigation proceeds.

Satellite Technology said the equipment in question is not covered by export regulations.

The company applied for and received an export classification from the Department of Commerce that allowed it to export the equipment to Iran, Strohman said. All the boxes were clearly marked with the classification and the destination.

The company said in its statement that the Very Small Aperture Terminal that it sold Iran is a “decontrolled, non-strategic commodity eligible for export to Iran without prior U.S. approval.”

Iran, the company said, has two of the systems--one supplied by Hughes Network Systems and one that Satellite Technology supplied for demonstration purposes last year.

Export Enforcement agents, however, allege that Iran bought the system and has no intention of returning it after the “demonstration” period is over.

Satellite Technology also says that it is vying with AT&T;, GTE and Hughes for a contract with the Central Bank of Iran for a large system worth $15 million.

It says the system seized by the agents was ordered in December by Iran Electronic Industries for commercial purposes. But because of uncertainty arising from the dispute with the government, Satellite Technology said, it will revise earnings and revenue for the first quarter to deduct the sale to Iran.

Profit for the first quarter is now $455,000, or 9 cents a share, instead of the previously reported earnings of $949,000, or 20 cents a share. Revenue is now $3 million instead of $4.4 million.