U.S. charges men with sending military parts to Iran

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have charged two men with conspiring to ship parts for American-made F-14 fighter jets and other military aircraft to Iran in violation of a U.S. embargo, prosecutors said on Monday.

Hassan Saied Keshari, 48, and Traian Bujduveanu, 53, who own U.S.-based aviation companies, received e-mailed orders directly from Iran and then procured and illegally shipped parts through Dubai to Iran, prosecutors said.

Both men are naturalized U.S. citizens, Keshari originally from Iran and Bujduveanu from Romania, prosecutors said.

"In essence they are charged with helping Iran build up its military ... by illegally exporting American-made military parts to it," U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta said at a briefing in Miami.

The men, neither of whom had the needed export licenses, allegedly obtained and shipped parts for the AH-1 attack helicopter and the CH-53 heavy-lift transport helicopter as well as the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet in violation of the arms export control act and the Iran embargo.

Keshari, the owner of Novato, California-based Kesh Air International, and Bujduveanu, owner of Orion Aviation of Plantation, Florida, were arrested late last week and arraigned in a federal court on Monday. They face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million.

U.S. authorities said numerous procurement networks use suppliers in the United States and around the world to obtain and ship American products to Iran.

Prosecutors said they had identified those who sent the parts orders to Keshari and Bujduveanu from Iran but declined to disclose their identities and would not say if the orders came from the Iranian government.

(Reporting by Jim Loney, editing by Michael Christie and Sandra Maler)