American faces lengthy jail sentence over Iranian LPG shipments
Behrouz Mokhtari, 72, of McLean, Virginia, and Tehran, Iran, a naturalised US citizen, has pleaded guilty this week to two separate conspiracies to violate sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran.
Mokhtari created a Panama-based front company, East & West Shipping, to purchase two liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tanker vessels to transport Iranian petrochemical products.
After using East & West to purchase the two vessels, Mokhtari transferred ownership of the vessels to other entities. Another entity, Greenline Shipholding, was used to control the operations of the LPG vessels.
Mokhtari faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison as well as being hit with fines of close to $3m. Sentencing is scheduled for April 3.