woman sentenced for role in scheme to ship $2 million in aircraft parts to Iran

A woman was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison for her role in a scheme to illegally smuggle millions of dollars worth of aircraft parts from her Morristown home to Iran, federal prosecutors said.

Joyce Marie Eliabachus, 53, pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for her role in sending at least 49 shipments containing more than 23,000 license-controlled aircraft parts worth over $2 million to Iran without the required licenses, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.

The act grants the President permission to regulate international commerce due to a national security threat. For decades, the United States government has imposed sanctions by banning various dealings with the country.

Eliabachus ran Edsun Equipments LLC out of her home where she was a part of an international network that acquired large quantities of aircraft components from United States-based manufacturers and vendors before shipping them to Iran between May 2015 through October 2017, Carpenito said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she worked with others including Peyman Amiri Larijani, 34, of Iran, whose clients included Iranian airline companies, several of which have been deemed a national security threat to the United States. One of the companies Larijani worked with has been sanctioned by the United States government for providing financial, material and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Charges against Larijani were still pending Tuesday, authorities said.

Eliabachus used her company to finalize the purchase and acquisition of requested components before repackaging and shipping them to shipping companies in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, where Larijani directed the parts to Iran, federal prosecutors

In an attempt to hide the network, Eliabachus falsified the destination of the components and the true value of them in order to avoid filing export control forms, Carpenito said.

The Iranian conspirators wired money to Eliabachus' Edsun Equipment accounts using Turkish bank accounts held in the names of shell companies, officials said.