US-IRANIAN "SPACE ENTREPRENEUR" INDICTED FOR AIDING IRAN

MAYBE THIS IS WHY THEIR ROCKET PROGRAM IS DOING SO WELL?

The Justice Department said Modanlo's case is just one of more than 150 filed by prosecutors in the past four years against arms traders and middlemen suspected of helping Tehran illegally acquire U.S. technology. Defendants have been accused of using shell companies, offshore bank accounts and faked end-user certificates to supply Tehran with everything from U.S.-made component parts for missile guidance systems to the ultra-high-strength steel needed to build centrifuges that enrich uranium.

Yet Modanlo's case stands out. Unlike most of those prosecuted under the act, he isn't charged with shipping U.S. technology to Iran. Instead, he is suspected of using his business contacts and aerospace engineering experience to help launch Iran's space program.

Modanlo said he came to the U.S. from the Iranian city of Sari on the Caspian Sea coast in 1979 -- the year of the Islamic revolution, according to interviews with The Washington Post and other publications in the 1990s. After earning degrees in engineering and aeronautics from George Washington University, he worked on projects for the Defense Department and NASA.

Modanlo and business partner Michael Ahan in 1992 founded Final Analysis Inc., based in offices near NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. They planned to loft a network of up to 32 small, low-earth orbiting telecommunications satellites that were designed to provide low-cost messaging and cargo tracking services.

RTWT.