The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says three people have been arrested and charged with exporting prohibited articles to Syrian Arab Airlines, also known as Syrianair (RB, Damascus).
The DOJ said in a statement last week Ali Caby, a/k/a “Alex Caby,” 40, a U.S. permanent resident currently residing in Bulgaria; Arash Caby, a/k/a “Axel Caby,” 43, of Miami, Florida; and Marjan Caby, 34, of Miami, Florida, were charged with violating the Syria trade embargo, commerce regulations, and a U.S. Department of Treasury designation based on an indictment charging eleven individuals and one foreign company.
They are alleged to have conspired to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations by exporting dual-use goods i.e. articles that have both civilian and military application.
The dual-use goods were exported to Syrian Arab Airlines, the Syrian government’s airline, which is an entity designated and blocked by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for transporting weapons and ammunition to Syria in conjunction with Hizballah, an Iran-backed Lebanese organization, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Also charged in the indictment were Adib Zeno, Rizk Ali, Ammar Al Mounajed, Zhelyaz Andreev, Mihaela Nenova, Lyubka Hristova, Iskren Georgiev, Ivan Sergiev, and Syrianair (RB, Damascus) itself.
According to court documents, Ali Caby ran the Bulgaria office of AW-Tronics, a Miami-based export company that was managed by Arash Caby, and which shipped and exported various aircraft parts and equipment to Syrian Arab Airlines. Marjan Caby, AW-Tronics’ export compliance officer and auditor, facilitated these exports by submitting false and misleading electronic export information to federal agencies. The DOJ alleges all three defendants closely supervised and encouraged subordinate employees of AW-Tronics in the willful exportation of the parts and equipment to Syrianair.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ricardo Del Toro of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Matthew Walczewski of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.