Case 1:08-cr-20612-PAS

Document 44-2

Entered on FLSD Docket 07/29/2008

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA MIAMI DIVISION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Case No. 08-CR-02821-PAW Plaintiff, MIAMI, FLORIDA JUNE 26, 2008 HASSAN SAIED KESHARI & TRAIAN BUJDUVEANU, Defendants. TRANSCRIPT OF PRETRIAL DETENTION HEARING BEFORE THE HONORABLE JOHN J. O'SULLIVAN, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE APPEARANCES: FOR THE GOVERNMENT: United States Attorney's Office 99 N.E. 4th Street Miami, Florida 33132 BY: MELISSA DAMIAN, A.U.S.A. FOR THE DEFENDANT KESHARI: BY: ROBERT E. ABREU, ESQ. 1001 Brickell Bay Tower Suite 2206 Miami, Florida 33131 FOR THE DEFENDANT BUJDUVEANU: Lyons & Sanders 600 N.E. 3rd Avenue Fort Lauderdale, Florida BY: BRUCE M. LYONS, ESQ. REPORTED BY: JERALD M. MEYERS, RPR-CM J.M. Court Reporting, Inc. 1601 N.W. 109 Terrace Telephone: 954-431-4757 Pembroke Pines, Florida 33026-2717 vs.

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(Call to order of the Court) THE COURT: All right. United States of America versus Hassan Keshari and Traian, I am probably going to butcher this name, Bujduveanu. MR. ABREU: Good morning, Your Honor. Robert Abreu on behalf of Mr. Keshari who is before the court. THE COURT: Okay. MR. ABREU: In addition, I have Joseph Olanski who is an associate with my law firm who is present as well. THE COURT: Okay. Very good. MR. LYONS: I am by my myself. Bruce Lyons along with my client Traian, and I would butcher his last name, also. THE COURT: Do you need any assistance or are you going to be able to do this by yourself? MR. LYONS: Judge, Mr. Spivak can stand in if he wants to. THE COURT: Well, if you stipulate to detention, you may be successful. MR. LYONS: No. Thank you, Judge. THE COURT: All right. Is the government ready to proceed with the detention hearing? MS. DAMIAN: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Are the defendants all ready to go? MR. ABREU: Yes, Your Honor. MR. LYONS: I do have a motion, though, for early Jencks. I am informed by the prosecutor that she has nothing. THE COURT: Okay. Is there any Jencks in this case? MS. DAMIAN: There is no Jencks. The agent that is testifying says we have nothing to turn over. We have nothing to turn over with regard to the motion. MR. LYONS: I am not surprised. MS. DAMIAN: We have nothing. THE COURT: Okay. So you are not opposing the motion. You are just saying you don't have anything. Okay. All right. Go ahead. You can proceed by proffer. MS. DAMIAN: Thank you, Your Honor, and I am going to combine them as far as the proffer is concerned. THE COURT: That's fine. I will tell you that I have read the complaint. So you can highlight the areas that you want. MS. DAMIAN: Then we will rely on what is within the four corners of the complaint as far as that is concerned, and I will just then go with a nutshell of what is in the complaint. Basically, the complaint charges a conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Iranian embargo and the Arms Export Control Act by exporting U.S. made military aircraft parts to Iran without licenses from the Department of State or the Department of the Treasury. In a nutshell, what was happening here -THE COURT: Let me interrupt you. You are asking for detention based on risk of flight? MS. DAMIAN: Both. Risk of flight and danger. THE COURT: How do you get danger? In the statute is there danger? MS. DAMIAN: They are not rebuttal presumptions, no. THE COURT: Are they even in there? You cannot get danger to the community

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unless it is listed in the statute. MS. DAMIAN: There is. The actual charge of international or the actual charge in the complaint is not listed in the statute, but the conduct that we are alleging falls within statutes that are within the Bail Reform Act for danger to the community. THE COURT: What is that? What statute are you talking about? MS. DAMIAN: There is a list under F(1). There is a list of terrorism related charges, and what we are alleging the conduct was, was well, as you know they are providing military provisions to a state sponsored, a regime that is a state sponsor of terrorism, which is Iran. So if you go into -- you are going to make me do this. It says the charges that are described in F(1) -- I should be able to do this off the top of my head -- it will direct you back to United States Code 2332(e). THE COURT: I don't see any 23. I see a bunch of 22's and 24's. MS. DAMIAN: Let me look back to the Bail Reform. THE COURT: Oh, yes. The offense listed in 2332(g)(5)(b). MS. DAMIAN: Of (f)(1)(a). 2332(b)(g)(5)(A). And if you look at that list in (g)(5)(d), they are basically all of that. That entire list is obviously all of the terrorism offenses and we have got charges related to -THE COURT: She is still looking for this. MS. DAMIAN: I am sorry, Your Honor. THE COURT: 2332(g) I have got. MS. DAMIAN: 2332 little B. THE COURT: Well, it says 2332 little (g)(5)(b). MS. DAMIAN: You are skipping the B. 2332 little B. THE COURT: Oh, yes. I see that. Okay. I am in the wrong place here. 2332. MS. DAMIAN: And then G's definitions. THE COURT: (g)(5)(b), obstruction of an aircraft. Not that, right? MS. DAMIAN: No. THE COURT: Violence at an international airport. No. Related to biological. I don't see any of those that jump out at me as returning to this. MS. DAMIAN: The hard thing is that we haven't returned an indictment yet, so I can't assure you of what charges we are looking at we are actually going to indict. So, if you want, I am happy to skip over the danger part because we are fine on the risk of flight. And if we want to turn to the danger part, we can talk about the potential charges against these guys. I am fine just to skip over the danger part for right now. THE COURT: Okay. MS. DAMIAN: Because, like I said, we haven't returned the indictment. We are still reviewing charges. THE COURT: Right. All right. Go ahead. MS. DAMIAN: All right. So, for purposes of a nutshell version of the charges against these defendants, it is in the complaint. Basically, what is alleged in the complaint is that the defendant Keshari is basically a broker of military aircraft parts. He receives orders via e-mail from individuals in Iran for specific military aircraft parts. He then goes out and finds those parts with various suppliers in the United States, many of which are in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The one specified in the particular complaint is the co-defendant Bujduveanu, and I am sure I am not saying that right.

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The co-defendant would supply the specific military aircraft parts. Those would then be shipped by the co-defendant per the individuals in Iran with instructions to Dubai, and from Dubai they would then be shipped to Iran. All of this was done by e-mail. Then the individuals in Iran would send money to Dubai. That money would get paid to the defendant Keshari, and Keshari would then pay the defendant Bujduveanu. All of the sales that are in the complaint are documented by e-mail. Each one of the sales that is discussed in the complaint deals with parts for the Cobra Attack AH-1 Helicopter, the CH-53-E Helicopter, the F-14 Fighter Jet, as well as request for quotes that we have discussed in the complaint for F-4 military aircraft. All of the items have been confirmed as being listed on a United States munitions list, and each of the defendants has been confirmed to not possess any licenses to export either to Iran or to export any munitions list items. THE COURT: Suppose this stuff is just going to Dubai, is that illegal or illegal? MS. DAMIAN: Illegal because of all of these things are on the United States munitions list. Basically, the Arms Export Control Act says it is illegal to export any defense articles which are the things on the United States munitions list from the United States without a license to do that. THE COURT: Okay. MS. DAMIAN: Neither one of these guys has that license, and each of these items is listed on the United States munitions list. The United States munitions list designation means that the items are strictly for military use. There is no civilian dual use for these items. THE COURT: So it doesn't make any difference if it is going to Iran or not? MS. DAMIAN: It doesn't. That's why there are two different charges, the embargo part of it is even. There are other things that we do discuss in the complaint and which are documented in e-mail communications between these guys, that they are also selling that so far we have not gotten a determination that they are munitions list items. We just haven't done the process yet. When our agents look at them, they say these are for military aircraft, but we haven't gotten the official determination. So even if they are not munitions list items, it is illegal to ship them to Iran. THE COURT: Okay. MS. DAMIAN: It is illegal to ship anything to Iran, with the limited exceptions for medical supplies and humanitarian relief. These parts, like I said, are all for military aircraft as it is alleged in the complaint and as our State Department representatives have told us that these are on the munitions list have also indicated that all of these aircraft are used by the Iranian military. In fact, all of these aircraft, just the parts alleged in the complaint, are used primarily by the Iranian military, with the F-14 Fighter Jet being exclusively by the Iranian military. Although these individuals have been in the aircraft parts business for many years, with Mr. Bujduveanu being approximately 20 years from what we can see, Mr. Keshari being as far as back as we have 7 years, but possibly longer than that, and my point being they are very familiar with these parts, and they are very familiar with the fact that these are military parts. Outside of the four corners of the complaint, since Your Honor has read it and we are going to rely on what the charges are there, we will also tell you that the investigation, which is primarily by e-mail, and as the complaint says, we have been,

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pursuant to search warrants, reading the e-mails of these two individuals for a while now. The e-mails document many other sales with each other and also for Keshari's business practices with several individuals in Iran doing the same thing, and the O'Ryan business, which is Bujduveanu's business also have many other dealings with many other clients, including direct sales and communications with individuals in Iran. As far as the investigation has deciphered so far, there is no indication of legitimate business going on with either one of these business. And when I say "legitimate business," what I mean is there is no indication of these aircraft parts suppliers sending, at least on e-mail accounts that the agents have been watching doing domestic sales that might have been legal, because I should point out that it is not illegal to possess these parts. So just by having an F-14 part, that is not contraband. It is not illegal. The illegality here is the export of them to anywhere. From what the investigation has uncovered, all of these two businesses, all they do is export these parts. Also, outside the four corners, we also know that both of these individuals, and this is documented in their e-mails, and also I will go on to the post arrest statements in a moment, but both of these individuals have been lying on government forms regarding exports obviously to hide the fact that they are exporting these things in violation of the law. So they will lie about what is in the package when they send it via Federal Express. They will say that they are commercial aviation parts. They are not. THE COURT: So those are not federal government forms, are they? MS. DAMIAN: Well, by lying, they are violating the federal export rules. Basically, if you export any kind of commodity that is worth $2,500 or more, you have to fill out the government shipper's export declaration. What they are doing is, and there are communications about this and admissions about this, they are lying about the value of what is in the package so that they don't have to fill out that government form, and then on the package also they are lying about the fact that they are military, which would also give rise to a need for a government form. So they are not even filling out the forms because they are lying about what would bring them to have to fill out the forms. THE COURT: All right. MS. DAMIAN: Separately from each other we have Keshari, and both defendants know that the agents have also been investigating the bank accounts. The bank accounts were seized at the time of the arrests of the individuals, and they have been looking at the bank records. The bank records all support it. So in addition to the documentation on e-mail, the bank records also support these transactions. And when I say they support it, I mean it shows the wire transfers coming in and the payments coming in that coincide with the various transactions that are listed in the complaint, as well as the other transactions that investigators have been seeing between the two and with other business associates that they have been dealing with. With respect to defendant Keshari, defendant Keshari during a post arrest, post Miranda interview at the time of his arrest did fully admit to all of the allegations in the complaint. When I say he admitted, he admitted knowledge of the law. He admitted knowledge of the Iranian embargo and knowledge of the Arms Export Control Act requirements.

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He admitted that he ships military aircraft parts to Iran according to Mr. Keshari based upon what the agents have discussed from the interview. He says he has been doing it since approximately September 11th of '01 for financial reasons. He has been doing it for the money. He knew that the parts he was dealing with were military according to his interview. He also admitted to advising the O'Ryan business to undervalue for the purpose of shipping documents, and he admitted receiving the orders from individuals in Iran and admitted knowledge that these items were going to Iran and admitted receiving payment from the individuals in Iran that he works with. With respect to Mr. Bujduveanu, we also have indications of sales to other clients. As I indicated, his sales are all over the world. He has significant other business, not only with Iranian clients, but with other embargoed countries of military parts. The agents have seen documented hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business which is relevant when I turn to the risk of flight issue. Again, we have no known domestic business for these military aircraft parts from defendant Bujduveanu. THE COURT: That is all he was dealing with was military aircraft parts? MS. DAMIAN: No. I wouldn't say that. As far as we know there is also commercial and civilian aircraft parts dealings that he has done, but as far as the export, and obviously the exports that the agents are looking at, the military aircraft parts are all getting exported. So he is dealing in both, but what he is exporting is the military. At least, you know, obviously those are the ones that raise the red flags. Those are the ones that are being watched. There may be dual use items being exported by him, but it is still, you know, with each transaction, and he has been doing this for years. There are lots and lots of transactions. With each one there is an undervaluation going on. There is either an embargoed destination, because if they are not military it doesn't matter where he is sending them. We will say, to be safe, the great way of, well, the evidence that has been seen in this case shows that the great majority of his work is not legitimate. There may be legitimate parts going out with his work. Also, again, there are no licenses for any of these types of business, and they have also found several other businesses registered to the home residence and business address for that defendant, including another aircraft parts supply company and including an Iranian airline that uses or is registered, and the corporation, the Delaware corporation was formed using his address for an Iranian airline that requires literally full aircraft which indicates they are coming potentially from this defendant. Again, with respect to both defendants, as far as the charges in the complaint, the way the evidence is -THE COURT: Did he make any post Miranda statements? MS. DAMIAN: Yes. This defendant, although the agents indicate that he pretty much lied throughout the entire post arrest, post Miranda interview and was very uncooperative, he did admit in the middle of all of that that he does have knowledge of all of the applicable regulations. He has knowledge of the embargo. He has knowledge of the munitions list and he has knowledge of the laws regarding export of military parts. He did admit to doing business transactions with Keshari and Cash Air, and he

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admitted actually shipping some items pursuant to their business transactions, but didn't really go transaction by transaction, but he does admit all of the knowledge and does admit shipping military aircraft parts and does admit doing business with Iran. He also admits of a knowledge of the industry in general. I think I have already indicated he has no licenses, and I would also point out with respect to Mr. O'Ryan -- I call him Mr. O'Ryan because it is easier. His business is O'Ryan. There was a search of his residence/business address at the time of his arrest. Boxes of these military aircraft parts were found in the business. He indicates to Pretrial Services that he has $1,000 worth of inventory in the house. Just on the surface, the first boxes that the agents saw when they walked in is worth well over $100,000 worth of inventory. All military. These are, you know, again, the same kind of thing. Parts for the C-130. They are the ones that stood out, and parts for the F-5 stood out. So it is a little misleading to say that he doesn't have a lot of inventory in his house. He has a lot of inventory in his house and a lot of documentation supporting deals all over the world that the agents are just now going through. Unless you have questions regarding the charges, do you want me to turn to the risk of flight? THE COURT: Yes. Go ahead. MS. DAMIAN: With respect to the defendant Keshari, the first thing I will point out is that Mr. Keshari is a dual citizen. He maintains citizenship of Iran, and he travels with his many travels that I will go into in a second, he generally, and he admitted this during his post arrest interview, he generally travels with his Iranian passport. Obviously with visa issues, it is a lot easier to get to Iran with an Iranian passport as he explained it, one of the reasons of the significance of that, but I point out he is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and he has been living in the country and has been naturalized for almost 20 years as far as I recall. Even if we take away his passports and those of his family members, who also have Iranian passports as far as I know, but I am not sure about the kids, it is very easy to replace those Iranian passports. Meaning we can take them. It would be hard for him to get a new U.S. passport legitimately, but we are very concerned about the fact that a new Iranian passport can come for that family to use to get back to Iran, which also leads me to the frequent travel. Keshari, just in looking at recent records, we could see 5 international trips in the last four years, including at least 3 trips to Iran in the last two years. I don't know what was going in the interview with Pretrial Services where he indicated that he had one trip in 1997 to Iran. He actually admitted during his post arrest interview at least two of the trips to Iran in the last 6 months. There is a lot of travel going back and forth to Iran, and he did admit during his post arrest interview that that was for some business, some pleasure, and the e-mails that are at issue here that are discussed in the complaint, they are actually discussed. "It was nice seeing you in Teheran. Here are some pictures of us in Teheran a couple of months ago." So that is a little misleading. He has a lot of frequent travel; a lot of international travel and a lot of travel to Iran which then leads to his ties to Iran. Although his immediate family, his wife and children, and I believe sister-in-law are located in California, the entire rest of the family is in Iran.

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He has got, and I think he indicates this in his Pretrial Services report, he has got his parents, his sister, his brother, a lot of cousins that we know about that are relevant because what we will call the bad guys in Iran that are placing the orders for these items. Those are, from his admission, his wife's cousins are the guys that are placing the requests and paying for these items to be shipped to Iran. So he has got a lot of business contacts in Iran, and my point being, although he may be able to say that he has got roots that he has developed here in the United States, he has got a lot more roots in Iran. And once his business is shut down, because he is going to have a lot of trouble getting back into this business again, our point is there is nothing left for him here. It is a lot easier for him to just pick up and go back to Iran or, you know, an associated place like Dubai where he has also got a lot of business contacts, apparently, and pick up the whole family and go back there and start fresh. It is a big concern for us. He also has access to a lot of money. It is a little hard to see from what is stagnant at the moment from the Pretrial Services interview and from what we can see in bank accounts at any given moment, but going back through his bank accounts and looking at these deals, these deals again are hundreds of thousands of dollars every month worth of business, and it is all going through his bank accounts. We know that the cousins-in-laws who are placing these orders from Iran are paying chunks of hundreds of thousands of dollars, because as Mr. Keshari admitted during his post arrest interview the way that this whole process works is they will dump, for example, $300,000 worth of cash into his account. He will do an accounting and he will work from that and, you know, send them invoices and ship them parts. And when he gets low, they will dump another large chunk of cash into his accounts. Our concern is it would be easy for them to dump a large chunk of cash for him to get out of the country with his family, and all of this is confirmed by his e-mail traffic and his bank accounts, all of that access and the numbers that we are dealing with. I have sort of been going through it all along, but our point is there is really little incentive for him to stay here. Not just because of his family and the money and the business, but the business here, he already didn't have licenses. Now, if he is convicted in this case and he is a convicted felon, he is not going to be able to do this business anymore. And as far as we know, that's it. That's the only business he has been in for however long he has been in the United States. His business assets have been frozen. He is looking at jail time on the short end of up to 5 years on just the 371. Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the maximum sentence is 20 years. Looking at the guidelines, once we go through all of the numbers of these transactions, a good 5 years in jail under the guidelines if we charge him with all of the transactions that we are seeing, and that's just what they have seen so far. There was a search of his business at the time of his arrest. The agents are just going through those documents. They were sent in from California. If he goes to Iran, we cannot get him back. That's it. There is no extradition going on with the State of Iran. And, like I said, if he goes, we are confidant that he would go with the entire family, and there would be no reason for him to come back here. There is nothing left for him after this incident. I am not going to go into the nature of the offense on the danger grounds because we are going to put the danger aside for now, but I will just highlight, you know, one really important point to us, which is with respect to what is in that complaint that you

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have before you, all of the other parts aside that these two individuals are dealing with, the F-14's alone to us, that is building up the Iranian military, which is a state sponsor of terrorism. These are very serious charges that, you know, we are taking very seriously. We are very confidant that with respect to Mr. Keshari, an Iranian citizen, if he is out, he is gone. With respect to risk of flight, then, turning to Bujduveanu, we know that Mr. Bujduveanu -- I am sorry if I am doing that wrong -- is a Romanian national that is a naturalized U.S. citizen with a lot of travel to Romania. I do not know if he possesses a Romanian passport. We have not been able to figure that out. So I don't know if he has dual citizenship. I will say that this is somebody with frequent travel. Even in his Pretrial Services report he indicates international travel to like ten different countries. The investigating agents have pulled up records documenting 6 international trips just within the last year; at least 11 within the last, less than 5 years, not to mention that when he was arrested, two trips to Romania within the last 6 months. When he was arrested, there were tickets for travel to Japan in July. Granted, I have got no problem believing that that was pleasure travel, but, you know, he was ready to go to Japan in July. I will also point out that he does have a pilot's license. He has, as far as ties go, we acknowledge that he has a lot of ties here. He has his 80 year old mother here. He has his son here and his sister here, but we will point out that he has never had a problem leaving in the past. He has done a lot of international travel. He is done a lot. So we are not concerned that he has got to be here to take care of these individuals. And, in fact, during post arrest interviews, when asked about, "You know, what happened? Why don't you cooperate? What happens if you go to jail, you leave your mother, you leave your son," he said, "I don't care." His only tie that we know of directly personally in Romania, he does have a girlfriend that has been living here on a B-1 visitor visa. She is from Romania. Presumably she is going back to Romania. So he will have that tie there, but he has a lot of business contacts in Romania. We know that he is a part owner of a business in Romania and he has plenty of other business ties in Romania, and we believe that is one of the reasons for the frequent travel back and forth to Romania. During his post arrest interview, he talked about how much he knows about Romania and how he has business dealings, including the military aircraft business dealings he has in Romania. So the point being there is a lot for him there if he leaves here. With respect to this defendant, he also has access to a lot of money. It is hard to figure out so far. He is complicated, but at the time of his arrest, during the search of the arrest, they found $40,000 cash in a shoe box under his bed. When asked about it, during his post arrest interview, he said, "Take it. It is personal." We also found documents indicating again hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars worth of business by this guy. The money is going somewhere. We don't know where it is, but there is money coming in through him worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he does all of this international travel. Somehow he is paying for it. It doesn't seem to be a problem. When his house was searched, and I may have already mentioned this, but there

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was more than $100,000 worth, on a conservative estimate, worth of just inventory of military parts in his house. So easy access to money. Easy access and can easily travel and get out of here. One other thing that the agents pointed out was when there were attempts to do surveillance on this defendant, he engaged in counter-surveillance maneuvers. It was interesting to the agents because these are all agents that have been trained in counter-surveillance. Even when they talked about it, their view was this is somebody that has actually been trained in counter-surveillance and was dodging them. They actually had to drop surveillance because he was dodging them during attempts to do surveillance on him. So even though we know where he lives, this is another one that is going to be difficult to keep track of. I would also point out that during a search of his house, there were miscellaneous other random things, like a blank social security card was found in his house. I point that out, again, because if we take his passport, we don't know if there is a Romanian passport, but the kind of business that he has been in over all of these years, we have no problem believing that he is going to be able to come up with a new fake passport if he has to get out of the country if he wants to. THE COURT: Well, do you have his passport? No. I mean, the government doesn't? MS. DAMIAN: We don't have the American U.S. passport, do we? THE COURT: The government has it? MS. DAMIAN: I don't know. I don't know of us having it. THE COURT: Because that would show whether or not he is traveling to Romania. THE AGENT: To my knowledge, we don't have it. MS. DAMIAN: I don't know that we have his U.S. passport. We pulled some other kind of, what was that? A fake world passport it was called. We pulled that, but that's not going to or I don't think that would have done him any good, anyway. It was pretty fake, but that is like the social security card. He had a state weird passport that I don't know, and again, as far as his post arrest interview goes, I may have already pointed this out, but he was not cooperative. Not somebody that was cooperative with law enforcement. So the thought of him being put under restrictions by Pretrial Services and following them are, everybody hesitates to believe that that is going to be the case. Then as far as incentives, again, we don't know of any legitimate business that is going to keep him working here and raising money if he stays in the United States. All of his business has been, that we can see, has really been oversees, and again this is somebody that is not going to be able to operate this kind of a business in the United States. THE COURT: All right. You need to wrap up. Anything else? MS. DAMIAN: No. That's wrapped. THE COURT: Okay. Who wants to go first? Mr. Abreu. MR. ABREU: Yes, sir. THE COURT: All right. MR. ABREU: Yes, sir. Your Honor, there was a search warrant served on Cash Air after my client was arrested, and the government found no contraband. It found no military parts and found nothing that they can charge him with. My

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client has a business where he is a commercial airline parts dealer, and I take exception to the government saying that he has no clients here in the United States. He has numerous clients in the United States. In fact, he has inventory at his business, which I believe is around $200,000 worth of inventory, all commercial airline parts, and he does supply clients in the United States. I believe once they review all of the e-mails back and forth, there are thousands and thousands of e-mails, they will see that Mr. Keshari never exported anything through Cash Air. He relied on O'Ryan in this particular case who he believed and who he was informed had a valid export license for these items. Everything that went through them he assumed or he was told, and I believe the e-mails will confirm that Mr. Bujduveanu indicated to my client that he did possess a valid export license. Furthermore, the e-mails will show, once they review all of the e-mails, that or numerous, if not scores of occasions my client specifically told vendors and people, customers that were looking for parts that he was not interested in dealing or selling any military parts. THE COURT: Well, I thought he was selling military parts? MR. ABREU: Judge, the government has found four instances over the course of 11 years that they detailed in the affidavit. Four of those parts are not munitions. They are not weapons systems. One is a bolt. Another one is a diaphragm, which is basically a piece of rubber. Another one is a harness assembly and, unfortunately, I don't have the information today, but I believe that these parts are also commercial use parts. I believe my client may have been misled into supplying these parts, and I believe once the government looks through all of their e-mails, I think that that will come to light. Now, regarding the issue of flight, I have Mr. Keshari' passports in my possession, and that is correct, he does have two passports, and let me briefly explain that the Islamic Republic of Iran is very similar to Cuba. I was born there. I came here when I was two years old. If I were to travel to Cuba tomorrow, and I am a U.S. citizen, the Cuban Government would require me to obtain a Cuban passport. THE COURT: Right. MR. ABREU: So if I were to be stopped, they would argue that I am a dual national when, in fact, I am not. When the country requires their nationals to have a passport in order to travel there, that is his reason for having two passports, him and his family. His mother and his father reside in Iran. His father is 80 years old. His mother is also elderly, and that's the reason principally for the visits. I have, as I said, his passport is in my possession, and I have his wife's passports and his two young daughters' passports that were attempted to be delivered to my office today, but there was no one there, so I should get them tomorrow from Fed Ex, and we are willing to surrender those to the government. In addition, I have contacted several of his family members, and I have nine individuals who are directly related to him, either cousins or brother-in-law's or aunts or uncles who live in California, who live in Hawaii, who live in Texas willing to pledge approximately four and a half million dollars worth of property in order to secure his presence in court.

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This consists of approximately five properties, and this is the equity in those properties. These are people that are not betting these properties. These are people that are absolutely sure that he will appear in court and are willing to pledge basically their biggest assets in order to assure his presence and to assure the court that he will be present. In addition, I believe the court could impose other conditions on my client. I spoke to him yesterday at length. He doesn't want to be involved in this type of situation. He believes he was misled. That's basically his contention. He is willing at his insistence, if he is released, to dismantle Cash Air; to liquidate the inventory and to close that business up so the government has no concern that he is dealing in these parts. It is interesting to note that only four items were listed over the course of almost 11 years that he has been in business, and I take exception with the prosecutor saying that he did this for money, because if you total up the value of those four shipments, you are talking somewhere around $40,000, and I don't think $40,000 over 11 years is going to get you very far in this country. So I take exception to that. I believe if the court would release him I believe the court has options available including, a GPS monitoring of the defendant. THE COURT: How would he support himself if he closes his business up? MR. ABREU: Judge, he does have family that would help him and would give him employment, and that obviously would be a condition of release, that he maintain employment in a filed that we are willing to accept a field that is not aviation related. He has a wife and two small children who depend on him. His wife wanted to speak today, but she is ill. She is very nervous, and I have a brief letter. If I could read that into the record? THE COURT: Okay. MR. ABREU: It says, "Saied plays such an important part in our family's life, I cannot function without him. I have been very ill with severe fibromyalgia and other problems for the last 8 years. I go through periods where I literally cannot get out of bed for sometimes two or more weeks. He runs the whole household, takes care of the kids and all of their needs. He drives me to the doctor, and so much more. He supports my sister and her kids. They look up to him like a father, since they don't have one. He has always been there for them. He support my parents and drives them anywhere they need to go, as they don't drive. Since his arrest, my four year old daughter has asked me if he is dead. He is a very honorable person, and everyone who knows him adores him. I know with all my being if you show faith in him, show mercy and release him on bond, you won't regret it. He has all of these friends and family willing to vouch for him. He won't let anyone down. He is a loving human being who would never intentionally do anything wrong. He will be here for trial. I beg you from the bottom of my soul to let him come home. His kids are terrified. We need him so much. He provides income, health insurance, takes the kids to and from school, cleans the house, washes the dishes, drives me to the doctor wherever else I cannot go through these bad periods of my life with my fibromyalgia.

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He takes complete care of me. I cannot function without him. He takes care of everything when I am bed stricken which, unfortunately, happens often." Judge, I believe sincerely in addition to the four and a half million dollars from his family, he has two properties, two homes that he owns that has approximately $240,000 worth of equity. He would be willing to pledge those. In addition, we would be willing to offer a $100,000 corporate surety bond, in addition, and also renew our offer to close that business down under the government's supervision. I will be happy, if the court releases him, to fly to California and be present along with any government agents to supervise the closing of that business. In addition, I would ask the court to place him on a GPS monitoring system, eliminate all computers from his home, and to require that he get gainful employment in a field that is not aviation related. The allegations I believe are a little all over the place at this point. I believe once the government reviews these thousands and thousands of e-mails, I think things may clarify. My client, I believe, may have made a mistake by selling items that were ultimately exported without a license, but I don't believe the evidence will show that he intentionally tried to circumvent the embargo, and I hope that that will come up once the government reviews all of the e-mails. I would ask the court to please consider a release of my client based on any or all or a combination of the conditions that I have set forth. Thank you. THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Lyons. MR. LYONS: Why don't we go through the last first, and since counsel, both counsel have talked about the problem cause aspects of this case, we suffer somewhat of a disadvantage, in that there are about 800 e-mails that go back and forth over a period of time between my client and Mr. Keshari, but I note that in the beginning, and I guess it is sort of like when my wife goes looking for goods, and she will go to Dania and buy antiques, I look at it as junk and she looks at it as an antique. I guess it is in the eyes of the beholder. The materials that were in his house -THE COURT: Your antiques are someone else's junk. That is what I tell my wife. MR. LYONS: Yes. I say that except for when she buys clothes and, unfortunately, that's another problem, but realistically, Your Honor, in this case the materials that were found in his house, the boxes of parts that they refer to are not air-worthy parts. They were sitting in his backyard. I only wish they were worth the kind of money they were worth, but we can sit here and speculate at this point. In looking at the case, you are talking about four sets of parts. I know that the first transaction was not with Mr. Keshari and my client, but was with someone else in either Dade or Broward County that relates to a gyro. I don't know anything about the gyro. I don't know whether that person was arrested. It has nothing to do with my client. I don't even know why it is in the probable cause affidavit, but having said that, Your Honor, let's look at my client at this point. We will deal with the other issues at a later date. I am sort of at a disadvantage, since I don't have any Jencks or any of the materials. Here is a guy who left Communism, who left Romania. They confiscated his land in Romania. His parents, he, his sister, both sisters came here to the United States in

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1974 or 1975. They are nationalized American citizens. All of his ties are here in Broward County. What the Pretrial Services report indicates is that he has one living sister living in Broward County. His other sister had passed away in 1994, I believe, or 2004. He has got a son Alex the result of a marriage and a divorce from the wife, and I guess one of the saving graces is, is that if your ex-wife will say decent things about you, how bad can you be? I know, because she has contacted me and indicated that some of the ICE agents are people that have visited with her, and they were hoping or they were believing that she would say bad things about her ex-husband. She had nothing but good things to say about her ex-husband. He is a good father. The tickets that counsel was referring to about his international travel to Japan, if she referred to the tickets, if you take a look at the ticket, it is a ticket for he and his son Alex to go this summer to Japan on a 10 day vacation between he and his son. It has nothing to do with business. It has nothing to do with anything else. The trips to Romania, his country of birth, his mother is still alive. She is in the back of the room. She is 98 percent blind. She is in the last row. She is standing up right now wearing a dark outfit. THE COURT: I see her. MR. LYONS: And his mother's property was confiscated in Romania in 1947, and the government has now indicated that it may wind up trying to get the property back. There has been litigation afoot for the last ten years. As the man left in the family, he has been going back and forth to Romania to try and get what was rightfully his mother's. The residence in question on Broward Boulevard is the residence that the mother and father own and have owned it for over more than 25 years. Let me say that he has lived in that house for 24 years. Everybody in his family lives in Broward County. Everybody in his family lives in the same area of Plantation. In addition to the two, to the sister and the mother who live here, and the son, just for the record, he has got a good friend who he has known for 7 years, and I will mispronounce his name, too, Mihai, M-i-h-a-i Oranontue. Would you stand up, sir. He is in the construction business. He has known the defendant for over 6 years. He knows that he lives at the residence with his mother. He is the caretaker of his mother. He takes care of her. He himself is obviously not well, and obviously the prison didn't follow the court's dictates, in that he has got Hepatitis C and diabetes type II, and no one still from the infirmary or the nurses have seen him yet. His son, as I indicated, is Alex who lives with the ex-wife, but has spent many, many nights over at the house, and thank God he was not there when they decided to break in the house on the morning that they broke in pursuant to the search warrant. They broke down both doors which just recently are in the process of being fixed because the mother is now living there alone by herself. The second individual I would introduce to the court, who would attest to the family ties and the lack of risk of flight would be Adrian A-n-g-h-e-l-e-s-c-u-i-n, the gentleman now standing up. He also resides in Plantation. He is in the insurance business. He has known the defendant for ten years. He sees him at least 3 times a week.

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He would testify, if called as a witness, that he is respectable, responsible and a good neighbor. He helps out people in their community who come here from all over the world who stay here who try just getting started because he is proud to be an American. He left Communism and he came here to become an American citizen and is a naturalized American citizen. I am not going to get too involved in the probable cause because, frankly, it is very difficult to defend. As, for example, if you look at one of the, they have a bunch of RFQ's requests for quotes on products. One of the products they are talking about is a product that was sent. A diaphragm. When the diaphragm was sent, or when the harness was sent, obviously they sent the wrong part because, according to the e-mails referred to in the paperwork, he gets an e-mail back saying, "This is not the appropriate harness." I don't know if the harness that they got has a non-military purpose because it, obviously, was not for what they were looking for, this F-14 that they refer to. So it could be a harness for something else. They say or they make an inference that there seems to be a breakdown in communication between Mr. Keshari and my client. They seem to refer to it for some reason or another. We are not looking at tea leaves here, Your Honor. The question is we will have to defend the charges. No question about it, but I think that the Pretrial Services report and 3142 would certainly give this court enough basis or reason to set a bond in this matter and require electronic monitoring and would require the one asset that they have, and that's the significant residence in Broward County. This defendant is not going run out on his mother. Say what you will about anything else, he would never leave this lady. That's the love of his life, and he would never leave his son, the two most important things in his life. As far as other conditions, Your Honor, if you take a look at all of the conditions set forth in 3142 and all of the reasons set forth in the Pretrial Services report, there is obviously a basis or a reason to set some bond; to set a bond that would guarantee to assure his appearance. There is nothing here that would say he would be a risk of flight. The passport, no question. And the only social security card he has got is his own. Whether it is filled or it isn't, I can't tell because I don't have it. THE COURT: Well, Social Security doesn't give you blank cards. MR. LYONS: No. I agree with you. I don't know what it is and I don't think he knows what it is. I can tell you this: The only passport he owns is a United States passport. He does not have dual citizenship with Romania. He left Romania because of Communism. In fact, according to part of the report, you know, one of the things that the government relies upon is he was not cooperative. That is, he didn't waive his Miranda rights and necessarily give a statement which would, one, inculpate him or inculpate his co-defendant. Well, that's not a basis necessarily for a determination that somebody should not be put out on bond. Unfortunately, that is not even set forth in the Bail Reform Act or in the pretrial detention hearing. I am only indicating to Your Honor that we could tie up every asset. If you take a look at --

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THE COURT: What is the equity in the house of the mother? MR. LYONS: The house is paid for. It was paid for in 1984. It is assessed, although, you know, it is obviously worth more than what the assessment is because you can only raise it so much. It is assessed for approximately $200,000 for tax purposes, but it is worth a heck of a lot more because it is right on Broward Boulevard. Now, obviously, in this market it is probably worth less than it was two years ago, but I can tell you this, and I understand Nebbia requirements, we have no problem with Nebbia requirements satisfactory to the prosecutor and satisfactory to the court. I would also indicate that the monies that were seized, one of the monies is in a black box was approximately $1,000 which was the son's money to be used for the trip when they were going on vacation in Japan, and his son works part time because he goes to school. Some of the other money that is there, and I have provided this to the government, is money from an individual from Romania who comes here and buys parts. What he does is he comes here and buys a car, brings it back and makes money on the cars because they are cheaper here then they are in Romania. That individual called me on the phone. I never met him. He gave me his phone number. I provided it to the government. She provided it to the asset forfeiture lady, Allison Lare I think her name is. It's Allison Lare who I have had communications with them, and I said, "I am going to give this guy a lawyer and let him deal with those issues." That has nothing to do with us. I just think there are conditions that this court could set pursuant to 3142 which would assure the appearance of this defendant in this matter. I am somewhat at a disadvantage as far as the number of e-mails. There are 800, and they are highlighting several, but I don't know what the e-mails were. I haven't seen the e-mails, and I am not really in a great position to respond. I can only tell you this, that there is certainly reason to believe, and he has no prior record of any significance. If you want to require him to stay in Broward County or in the tri-county area or the Southern District, not a problem, and wear an electronic monitor, no problem. If you want him to report to Pretrial Services weekly, no problem. If you want him to be gainfully employed in an industry other than the airline industry or parts business, no problem. If you want him to drop urine samples, I again say no problem. There are reasons and conditions which would assure this man's appearance in a court when and if the indictment comes down. THE COURT: Okay. MR. ABREU: Judge, may I add one thing that I omitted, and that is the pretrial Services report for Mr. Keshari recommends pretrial release. THE COURT: Okay. All right. Briefly, anything from the government? MS. DAMIAN: Just one overall point, which is that counsel for both defendants have tried to indicate the I guess not so severe nature or not so serious nature of the parts that are at issue here. Maybe they don't know because they don't understand the industry. I am just learning about the industry. These are very important parts. They may just be a valve. They may just be a ring, but these are the parts that are necessary for the running of these military aircraft, and

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anyone in this industry knows that these are very important. So important, in fact, that there was legislation passed in January of this year by the President indicating no part, I don't care what widget it is, if it is for an F-14, it is against the law for anyone to let it leave this country. One of the most serious issues going on with this country right now is the seriousness of the nature of Iran and the building up of its military fleet. I don't know if anyone could leave here with the feeling that these are not important things. These are really important military parts. The only other thing is no matter what denials as far as the PC goes in this case, no matter what denials go on about what knowledge they had about what these parts were or what their relationship with each other was, these parts ended up in Iran, and the orders came from Iran. Both of these defendants have acknowledged that they knew the parts were going to Iran. So even if they were not important, which is not the case, it is still a violation of the law, and they knew they were violating the law by sending these things to Iran. THE COURT: Okay. MR. LYONS: The one thing I would add, Your Honor, not to talk about the facts, is the government's burden under 3142(f)(2)(b) is clear and convincing evidence as far as the risk of flight, and I don't think that they have proved that. THE COURT: No. It is risk of flight and preponderance. MR. LYONS: Preponderance. I am sorry. THE COURT: Safety of the community is clear and convincing. MR. LYONS: Right. Well, okay. You are right. Well, that has been abandoned at this point. THE COURT: Okay. MR. LYONS: Okay. THE COURT: All right. I find the weight of the evidence against each of the defendants is substantial. They both participated in a scheme to export military goods to Iran; Mr. Keshari, specifically a gyro which apparently Mr. Bujduveanu, is that how you say it? MR. LYONS: I am not sure, Judge. THE COURT: Okay. Well, that's how I will say it. I guess that's how someone said it here -- apparently didn't participate in that, but did participate in other exports which included a seal to be used on a military helicopter as well as a harness to be used on an F-14. The evidence is overwhelming that they knew these goods were being sent to Iran, in that they admitted to it in post arrest interviews, as well as circumstantial evidence that was gathered during the investigation through the review of e-mails, as well as general knowledge that F-14's are almost solely if not predominantly if not solely used by Iran. I know that there has been an awful lot of publicity about Iran in this country. You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know that the United States considers them a state sponsor of terrorism. In fact, it has contemplated invading Iran due to their continued participation in what is alleged to be nuclear weapons. It is also common knowledge that the United States is very concerned about them and them using military aircraft. As to Mr. Keshari, I find by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant as required at future proceedings.

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The defendant maintains a United States passport and an Iranian passport. He was born in Iran. He is a United States citizen, but he has very close ties and family in Iran. He travels there on a consistent basis and, in fact, has been there twice in the last that 6 months. The goods that he was providing to Iran and the Iranians, which may also be used in an Iranian defense equipment, gives Iranian nationals, as well as perhaps the Iranian Government a reason to support him should he go to Iran. He has got very close ties there, business associates and family associates there. He was actually dealing in these aviation parts with cousins of his wife who resided in Iran. He has agreed to shut down his business, and the government argues that his business would no longer be viable after his arrest in this matter, assuming that he is convicted. And although he does have substantial assets here, he does have friends who are willing to post four and a half million dollars in property, I find that that is not sufficient to assure the court he will appear at future proceedings due to the nature of this offense, the substantial prison sentence that he is facing and the likelihood that he would flee to Iran where he has close ties. As to Mr. Bujduveanu, certainly I find that by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of this defendant as required at future proceedings. The defendant as well is a United States citizen. However, he is very familiar with international travel and does substantial international business. He has traveled, according his Pretrial Services report, to numerous countries over the last few years; Romania, Austria, Hungry, Italy, Luxembourg, Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and Argentina. He was planning to travel to Japan with his son next month. According to the notes, he has a pilot's license which would enable him to leave the United States without much problem. Although he apparently only has a United States passport which he is willing to turn over, I find that with the pilot's license and with his international contacts that he could very easily leave the country through a border country, through the Bahamas or through Canada or Mexico and establish residency out of the country. In addition, because his business is an international business, he can continue to do business and make money outside of the country. His girlfriend is from Romania. She is here on a temporary type visa which will require her to return to Romania. And although he does have substantial family ties here, specifically a son and a mother, as well as I believe a sibling, I find that that is not substantial enough to insure the court that he will appear at future proceedings; that those folks could leave the country try as well; specifically his mother who is attempting to have some property repatriated in Romania from which she originated. He also had a substantial amount of cash in his house. According to the government, he has done millions of dollars of business in the airline industry, and based on all of those facts, I find that he is not likely to appear at future court proceedings, and at least I find by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure his appearance at future court proceedings. So based on that, I will order both of the defendants held as risk of flight pending trial in this matter. All right. Anything else I can help you all with?

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MS. DAMIAN: Not from the government, Your Honor. Thank you. THE COURT: Okay. Anything else for the defendants? MR. LYONS: Yes, Your Honor. You could again reorder that somebody in the jail see him for his medical condition. THE COURT: Okay. I would like the marshal -- who in the marshals will be bringing these folks over there today? THE MARSHAL: We bring them over on a run, Your Honor. It all depends. THE COURT: Okay. I want somebody to commit to me to tell the prison that I want this gentleman to see a physician. When will he be going back today? THE MARSHAL: Probably around 3:00, 3:30. THE COURT: Okay. Well, if possible, I want him to see a physician today. If not, then the first thing tomorrow. Tell them it is important because the gentleman suffers from diabetes as well as, did you say Hepatitis C. MR. LYONS: Hepatitis C. THE COURT: And if they don't do that, then let me know, Mr. Meyers, and we will bring them over here and find out why they didn't do it. MR. LYONS: Okay. THE COURT: Okay. Anything else I can help anybody with? MR. ABREU: One more matter. My client has informed me that he is in a special housing unit over at FDC. THE COURT: Yes. MR. ABREU: And apparently the co-defendant is not. Does the court have any way to -THE COURT: That's a Bureau of Prison policy. You can discuss it with them. I don't know what reason they have for holding him there. MS. DAMIAN: I was told about it. We did not put in a separation order. I asked the agents. They didn't know, either. I think it is just because they are co-defendants, they separate them. I am fine with them being over on different floors as opposed to being in the SHU, but I just found out about that. I have had nothing to do with that. THE COURT: Okay. Well, I mean I guess you can inquire of them and tell them the government has no objection to them being on separate floors instead of being in the SHU. All right. Anything else? MR. ABREU: Thank you, Your Honor. THE COURT: All right. Anything else for the court on any matter? No. Okay. Court is in recess. THE CLERK: All rise. Court is in recess.

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CERTIFICATE I hereby certify that the foregoing is an accurate transcription of proceedings in the above-entitled matter. ______________ _______________________________________ DATE JERALD M. MEYERS, RPR-CM Miami, FL 33128-7797