A Georgia man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison, a $10,000 fine, and was ordered to forfeit $160,362 in connection with his efforts to illegally export military components for fighter jets and attack helicopters from the United States to Iran, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday.
Michael Edward Todd, a U.S. national who is president of The Parts Guys LLC, a company in Port Orange, Fla., that maintains a warehouse at the Middle Georgia Municipal Airport in Macon, was sentenced this morning in federal court in the Middle District of Georgia.
Todd was arrested in December 2010 in Atlanta. He, along with his company, The Parts Guys, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act on May 9.
According to court documents, Todd conspired with several others to export components for attack helicopters and fighter jets from the United States to Iran without obtaining the required U.S. export licenses. These components included military parts for the Bell AH-1 attack helicopter, the UH-1 Huey attack helicopter, as well as the F-5 and F-4 fighter jets.
Todd is the second individual defendant to plead guilty and be sentenced in this investigation. Co-defendant Hamid “Hank” Seifi, an Iranian-born U.S. national, and his St. Charles, Ill., company, Galaxy Aviation Services, pleaded guilty on Feb. 24, to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in connection with illegal exports of military aircraft components to Iran. On June 22, Seifi was sentenced to 56 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, a fine of $12,500 and forfeiture of $153,950, while Galaxy Aviation, which is now defunct, received a $400 special assessment, the Justice Department said.
GA man gets prison for exports to Iran
