WASHINGTON – The CEO of a company that contested the permits issued for the Mississippi Silicon plant in Burnsville has pleaded guilty to exporting specially metals from the U. S. to Iran.
The U. S. Department of Justice says Erdal Kuyumcu, 44, admitted to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Kuyumcu is the chief executive officer of Global Metallurgy LLC.
The company was accused by federal investigators of trying to send a metallic powder composed of cobalt and nickel to Iran without obtaining a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The power can be used to coat gas turbine components, including turbine blades for use in aerospace, missile production and nuclear applications.
The metals are closely regulated by the U. S. Department of Commerce to combat nuclear proliferation and protect national security.
Exporting the metals without the license is illegal.
Federal officials say Kuyumcu and a co-conspirator arranged for the metallic powder to be shipped to Turkey and then to Iran.
He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine at sentencing.
Erdal Kuyumcu, a Turkish businessman from Queens, NY admitted he hadn’t obtained the proper license in order to peddle the cobalt-nickel substance — 1,000 pounds of which was shipped to Iran by way of Istanbul in July 2013. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony charges.
“I was aware … that I did this against U.S. law. But I had not the bravery to stand up and refuse” to do it, he told Brooklyn federal court Judge Dora Irizarry.
Kuyumcu took a plea deal with prosecutors and faces just under five years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that in order to cover up the scheme, Kuyumcu and his cohorts referred to Iran as “the neighbor.”
The cobalt-nickel powder can be used in aerospace, missile production and nuclear applications, according to officials.
Kuyumcu, the CEO of a metallurgy firm in Woodside, will be sentenced in October.

Source: WTVA, NY POST, 15 June 2016