Two individuals were arrested Tuesday morning for illegally shipping an Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) from New Jersey to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without the necessary license and authorization.
Fadi Nammas, 43, of Fairfax, Virginia, and Tara Jamhour, 24, of Rockaway, New Jersey, are charged with conspiracy to export and smuggle goods from the United States, unlawful exportation of goods without the required license, and smuggling goods from the United States.
Nammas appeared on July 2, 2024, before U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick in the Eastern District of Virginia, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 3, 2024. Jamhour appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jessica S. Allen in Newark federal court and was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond.
According to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, court documents and statements, from November 2023 through March 2024, Nammas and Jamhour operated under the guise of Star Aero, an aircraft service and parts provider based in Garfield, New Jersey.
They obtained an ADIRU, a component crucial for providing air data and inertial reference information to pilots’ electronic flight instrument system displays, from a Vermont-based aviation company.
The defendants claimed the ADIRU was for Star Aero’s stock purposes and assured compliance with U.S. export laws.
However, they intended to ship the ADIRU to another company in the UAE. Upon receiving the unit, they repackaged it with false documentation undervaluing and misdescribing the item and attempted to ship it to the UAE without the required license, as the ADIRU is controlled for missile technology and anti-terrorism reasons.
The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charge of unlawfully exporting controlled goods is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The smuggling charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited the investigation to special agents of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark, led by Acting Special Agent in Charge William S. Walker. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the HSI Field Office in Fairfax, Virginia, also contributed to the investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vera Varshavsky of the National Security Unit and Trial Attorney Monica Svetoslavov of the DOJ’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
The charges are accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Special Agent Robert Pinches of HSI attested in his affidavit that between November 2023 and March 2024, the defendants conspired to export the ADIRU to the UAE without the required licenses, in violation of U.S. laws.
The defendants fraudulently concealed and attempted to export the unit, violating the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations.
The United Arab Emirates is a country in the Middle East organized as an elective monarchy formed from a federation of seven emirates, whose leaders are determined by consensus of the ruling royal family of each respective emirate. Located at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula, it shares borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia; as well as maritime borders in the Persian Gulf with Qatar and Iran.
According to the New York Times, the UAE is “an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state”.
In the absence of democratically elected institutions and a formal commitment to free speech, human rights organizations report systematic violations in the UAE. These include the torture and enforced disappearance of critics of the government.
The investigation and legal proceedings continue as the defendants face serious charges under U.S. export and smuggling laws.