Egyptian firm pleads guilty to U.S. weapons export violation

The U.S. Justice Department said AMA United Group, Malak Neseem Swares Boulos, and Amged Kamel Yonan Tawdraus pleaded guilty to Arms Export Control Act violations.    The U.S. Justice Department said AMA United Group, Malak Neseem Swares Boulos, and Amged Kamel Yonan Tawdraus pleaded guilty late last week at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., to violating the country’s export regulations in their attempt to ship munitions samples from New York to Egypt.  
   AMA United Group, an Egyptian procurement agent, entered a guilty plea to violating the Arms Export Control Act, while Boulos and Tawdraus, Egyptian citizens and partners in AMA United Group, pleaded guilty to failing to file required export information relating to the international shipment of a landmine and multiple bomb bodies.  
   According to court documents, Boulos and Tawdraus were arrested after attempting to close a deal to acquire and export the items.
   Starting in February 2011, the defendants began trying to obtain the munitions on behalf of AMA United Group’s customer, a factory in Cairo, the Justice Department said.