| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 18, 2007 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that Mohammad Ali Mayssami pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony charge related to his role in financing the illegal shipment of computer products to Iran. This guilty plea is the result of an investigation by agents of the Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement, of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.
On December 3, 2007, an information was filed, charging Mr. Mayssami with one count of failing to report a suspicious transaction in violation of Title 31, U.S.C. § 5322(a).
In pleading guilty, Mr. Mayssami, a jeweler and precious gems dealer from San Diego, admitted that on January 29, 2003, at the request of his father in Iran, he wrote a check for $4,000 and made it payable to Super Micro Computers (“Super Micro”), located in San Jose, California. On February 14, 2003, he deposited this check into Super Micro’s bank account. Mr. Mayssami received no goods or services from Super Micro in return for the deposit. Although he had no specific knowledge what the funds were for, he had reason to believe that Super Micro might be selling computer equipment to an intermediary for possible shipment to Iran, in violation of a U.S. embargo.
Mr. Mayssami is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31, 2008, before United States District Judge Ronald M. Whyte in San Jose. The maximum statutory penalty for each count of failing to report a suspicious transaction, in violation of Title 31, U.S.C. § 5322(a) is five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Previously, on September 5, 2006, Super Micro pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly exporting items subject to export regulations without obtaining a license, in violation of Title 50, United States Code, section 1705(b). The company admitted that between December 28, 2001, and January 29, 2002, it sold 300 of the company’s P4SBA+ Motherboards to a company named Super Net in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, knowing that the items were to be transhipped to Iran. At the time of the export the items were controlled for reasons of national security, and exporting them to Iran without a license was illegal.
Gary G. Fry is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Legal Technician Tracey Andersen.
This guilty plea was the result of a four-year investigation by agents of the Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement, of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which regulates exports, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.
Further Information:
Case # CR 07-00760
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or by email at Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.