Posted on Sat, Jul. 26, 2008
By Kathleen Brady Shea and Mari A. Schaefer
A Chester County business owner was arrested yesterday and charged with conducting prohibited transactions with Iran and lying about it, federal authorities said.
Ali Amirnazmi, 64, a U.S. and Iranian citizen who owns TranTech Consultants Inc. in Exton, has been under scrutiny from federal officials about his business dealings. He was arrested at his Colonial home on Green Hill Lane in Berwyn.
He is accused of numerous crimes from 1996 to this month related to dealings with companies in Iran, including some controlled by the government, a news release said.
The charges against Amirnazmi include violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which authorized sanctions against Iran. Amirnazmi also allegedly conspired to act in the United States as an agent of Iran without registering with the attorney general and made false statements to federal officials, the news release said.
A "sold" sign is in front of the Amirnazmis' home. Neighbors said the couple had planned to downsize now that their daughter, a medical student, had moved out. Houses in the 30-year-old neighborhood have recently sold for between $650,000 and $700,000, one neighbor said.
Karen Garbutt, 39, who has lived next to the couple for about four years, described them as very nice neighbors. Amirnazmi's wife, Guiti Saber Amirnazmi, was one of the first people to greet her family when they moved in, Garbutt said. She would drop by with presents for Garbutt's children at Christmas and often make a Persian meal for the family to try.
"I met him once," she said of Ali Amirnazmi. "He was never home and always working, working, working."
The Web site for TranTech lists Amirnazmi, a chemical-engineering graduate of Tehran University and Stanford University, as the founder and president, and Saber Amirnazmi, 61, as a co-founder and board member. Telephone and e-mail messages to the company were not returned.
Court records show that Saber Amirnazmi filed for divorce in December 2006 and withdrew the complaint in February 2007.
TranTech, created in 1981, specializes in software for "chemical process industries," the Web site said. Customers listed on the firm's Web site include Arco, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Rohm & Haas, and "clients who do not wish their name to be disclosed."
According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company has 23 employees and annual sales between $1 million and $2.5 million. The company's Web site references an additional 21 global contract employees from countries such as South Korea and Iran "who provide raw intelligence information about the country of their expertise."
The federal indictment against Amirnazmi states that he sent computer software and other materials to four companies in Iran, agreeing to provide foreign equipment and chemicals in a joint venture with one Iranian firm to build a chemical plant in Iran.
Amirnazmi had previous interviews with federal law enforcement authorities, including the FBI and IRS.
He used a calling card to telephone a representative of the Iranian government from a pay phone at a train station in Paoli.
Patty Hartman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, said Amirnazmi would remain in custody at least until a detention hearing can be scheduled, probably on Monday or Tuesday.
If convicted, Amirnazmi faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison and a $5.5 million fine, the news release said.
Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-696-3021 or kbrady@phillynews.com.
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