Turkish businessman sentenced to jail for violating US sanctions on Iran

The United States Justice Department has announced on September 3 that a Turkish businessman was sentenced to jail for 27 months for violating US sanctions on Iran.

Resit Tavan, the owner of the Istanbul-based Turkish business Ramor Dis Ticaret Ltd. (also known as the "Ramor Group") was sentenced in connection with his conviction for conspiracy to violate US sanctions by exporting specialized marine equipment from the United States to Iran between 2013 to 2015.

Fulya Kalafatoglu Oguzturk, another Turkish citizen charged in the same Indictment remains at large as a fugitive.

Tavan who had pleaded guilty in April this year received his sentence in Federal District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 29.

He used his Turkish based company, the Ramor Group, to acquire a range of marine-related equipment that had been manufactured in Wisconsin by US companies on behalf of the Iran-based Qeshm Madkandalou Shipbuilding Cooperative (Madkanadalou).

The equipment he acquired included high powered outboard engines, marine power generators and powerboat propulsion equipment known as surface drives.

Tavan had worked in cooperation with Iranian officers associated with Madkandalou to use some of this US origin marine equipment to support the construction and development of a prototype high-speed missile attack boat for the Iranian military or naval forces.

From early 2013 through 2015, Tavan and the Ramor Group had worked in concert with Iranian officials to procure US origin marine equipment and illegally export it to Iran by using the Ramor Group in Turkey to receive the goods and thereafter re-export it to Madkandalou in Iran, in violation of US sanctions.

At the sentencing hearing, the District Court Judge indicated that this conspiracy to violate US sanctions by procuring marine equipment for military purposes represented a serious threat to US national security.