Metals shipper pleads guilty to illicit exports to Iran

The CEO of Global Metallurgy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in relation to the export of specialty metals from the United States to Iran.    The U.S. Justice Department this week said Erdal Kuyumcu, chief executive officer of Woodside, N.Y.-based Global Metallurgy, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in relation to the export of specialty metals from the United States to Iran.
   The U.S. case was tried in the District Court of the Eastern District of New York.
   According to court documents, Kuyumcu conspired to a metallic powder composed of cobalt and nickel from the United States to Iran without obtaining the required license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  
   The metallic powder can be used to coat gas turbine components, including turbine blades, and can be used in aerospace, missile production and nuclear applications. The material is closely regulated by the Commerce Department for its potential use in nuclear weapons development. OFAC must issue a license in order to export it from the United States.
   “Kuyumcu and others conspired to obtain more than 1,000 pounds of the metallic powder from a U.S.-based supplier for export to Iran. To hide the true destination of the goods from the U.S. supplier, Kuyumcu and a co-conspirator arranged for the metallic powder to be shipped first to Turkey and then to Iran,” the Justice Department explained.
   At sentencing, Kuyumcu faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, the department said.