Forgive and Forget
Christmas doesn’t come but once a year for most Americans…unless you are Nader Madanlo. In what President Obama is calling a one-time gesture, the U.S. has granted the pardons and/or dismissed the criminal charges against seven Iranians in exchange for the discharge of four Americans whom were being held by the Iranian government.
Of the seven Iranians affected by this clemency this article will focus on Modanlo and his criminal misgivings.
On June 8, 2010, after a ten year investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported the arrest of Madanlo. Just days earlier Madanlo was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and money laundering. While money laundering may be a familiar law enforcement violation, IEEPA may not be.
In short, since 1977 Congress has authorized the President of the United States to exercise certain authorities to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat to national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States that originated in whole or in part outside of the United States. In 1995, under executive order, the actions and policies of the government of Iran constituted the previously mentioned unusual and extraordinary threats. These declarations ultimately culminated in the “Iran Trade Embargo” and the “Iranian Trade Regulations” (ITR) which prohibit the export, re-export, sale or supply, of any goods, technology or services without prior authorization of the U.S. government.
So how does one even begin to violate the IEEPA, ITR and the Iran Trade Embargo? For Madanlo, his ethos apparently must have been “go big or go home”. His indictment alleges that Madanlo devised a scheme that would eventually make him millions of dollars. In order to profit, Madanlo knowingly violated the Iran Trade Embargo by brokering, in person, a deal between a Russian owned satellite company POLYOT and the Iranian government. Did I mention that U.S. personnel cannot provide technology or services to Iran without authorization? Apparently Madanlo did. Madanlo and fellow conspirators Hamid Malmirian, Reza Heidari, Mohammad Modares, Abdol Reza Mehrdad, and Sirous Naseri, attempted to conceal their activities by utilizing bogus front companies and soliciting the assistance of a Swiss company to “wall-off” any perception of Iranian involvement. On December 20th, 2010, all doubts of his culpability should have been removed when he was sentenced to eight years in prison for his actions.
The Department of Justice reported “that as a result of the conspiracy, an Iranian earth observation satellite equipped with a camera was launched into space from Russia on October 27, 2005. The launch was the first-ever Iranian satellite put into orbit.” The launch of the Sina-1 satellite came just one day after newly-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel must be “wiped off the map.”
President Obama tried to relieve any hesitations about the prisoner swap by assuring reporters that “These individuals were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses.” Admittedly, Madanlo is not a violent criminal but he is no peace maker either. Born in Iran, 53 year old Madanlo came to the U.S., became a naturalized U.S. citizen, studied engineering at George Washington University and was a prominent NASA contractor with an international business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. His education and international experience alone would lead most to believe that he was aware, if caught and it was brought to light, his criminal conspiracy could potentially fuel further distrust between nations. So what inspires a naturalized U.S. citizen to take such a risk and betray the trust of a country who once welcomed him?
While not all of the details concerning the recent prisoner swap have been released as of yet it is certain at least for the time being that all seven Iranians freed under a prisoner exchange have elected to remain in the U.S. for the time being. Unbeknownst to many, the U.S. in most cases is unable to deport naturalized U.S. citizens even after being convicted of a serious offense. This article is not designed to question the negotiating skills of U.S. officials but instead to draw attention to the ineffectiveness of an Immigration system that is unable to remove individuals that have violated the laws of a sovereign country. Merry Christmas Modanlo.
Related articles: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/7-iranians-freed-in-us-prisoner-swap/
This article is a continuance of the snippet from our Weekly News article What the 7 Iranian prisoners had in common, where “plugged-in” reported on the January 16th prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran. This article will attempt to take a closer look into the Iranian prisoners and why they were indicted on federal crimes. Plugged-in has obtained copies of the criminal indictments, something that anyone with a credit card and internet access can do, in order to bring to light any information that may not have been previously reported in initial media releases.
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