By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — The feds have busted a suburban Washington man who ran a satellite company on charges that he illegally provided technology to his native Iran that resulted in the launching of an Iranian earth satellite, equipped with a camera, in Russia in October 2005, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Nader Modanlo, 49, of Potomac, Md., a naturalized citizen born in Iran, was among six people named in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday in Greenbelt, Md. Authorities alleged that technology and hardware were provided to Iran in violation of the U.S. trade embarago, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Modanlo was arrested Tuesday morning. The other five defendants, all Iranians, were still at large, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“The indictment alleges that the defendants violated the Iran trade embargo by creating a sham company to conceal the fact that they were providing goods, technology and services to Iran in return for millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.
