(Image source from: Blog UCLM)

The United States district court has sentenced a Pakistani-origin businessman to three years of probation for procuring and unlawfully exporting material and equipment to Pakistan for its military.

Imran Khan of North Haven in Connecticut was sentenced in Bridgeport to three years of probation, the first six months of which the 44-year-old Khan must serve in home confinement for violating the U.S. export law.

Khan has also been ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a USD 3,000 fine.

First six months of the three-year probation is in home confinement, John Durham, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, said Friday.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from at least 2012 to December 2016, Khan and two of his family members engaged in a scheme to purchase goods that were controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and to export those goods without a license to Pakistan, in violation of the EAR.

Khan had pleaded guilty to one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

In his guilty plea in June 2017, Khan specifically admitted that, between August 2012 and January 2013, he secured, received and exported to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the National Institute of Lasers & Optronics NILOP) or the  Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO).

All of these companies are listed in the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List.

Through companies conducting business as Brush Locker Tools, Kauser Enterprises-USA and Kauser

Enterprises-Pakistan, Khan, his father, and brother received orders from a Pakistani company that procured equipment and materials for the Pakistani military, requesting them to procure specific products that were subject to the export regulations.

Durham said when the U.S. manufacturers asked regarding the end-user for a product, the defendants either informed the manufacturer that the product would stay in the U.S. or completed an end-user certification indicating that the product would not be exported.

After the products were acquired, they were shipped by the makers to the defendants in Connecticut.

The products were then shipped to Pakistan on behalf of either the PAEC, SUPARCO or NILOP, all of which were listed on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List.

The defendants received the proceeds for the sale of export-controlled items through wire transactions to a U.S. bank account that the defendants controlled.

Earlier this year, Khan's father, Muhammad Ismail, and his brother, Kamran Khan, each pleaded guilty to one count of international money laundering, for causing funds to be transferred from Pakistan to the U.S. in relation with the export control violations.

Both have been sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment.

Ismail and Kamran Khan are both citizens of Pakistan and lawful permanent residents of the U.S.

By Sowmya Sangam