Torontonian was “wilfully blind” to their banned use, says judge
Mahmoud Yadegari, the Toronto man caught trying to send embargoed nuclear equipment to Iran, has been sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Yadegari, 37, is the first Canadian convicted under the Nuclear Safety Act, as well as special regulations under the United Nations Act intended to stop Iran from getting the Bomb. RMCP, prosecutors and border services officials were pleased with the sentence, saying it sends a strong message to the burgeoning network of agents attempting to make money by supplying Iran’s nuclear program. Yadegari had purchased a shipment of 10 pressure transducers—a high-pressure gauge that can be used in centrifuges that enrich uranium—from the Canadian distributor of a Massachusetts-based company and tried to send two of them to Iran, via the United Arab Emirates. In doing so, he breached international covenants, along with a host of domestic export rules. The question now is whether Yadegari will face prosecution in the United States, where he made similar attempts to acquire the devices, in some cases lying about their end user and using fake documentation.