Two people were arrested Tuesday morning for shipping controlled avionics f) from New Jersey to the United Arab Emirates without having obtained the required license and authorization, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.
Fadi Nammas, 43, of Fairfax, Virginia, and Tara Jamhour, 24, of Rockaway, New Jersey, are charged by complaint with one count of conspiracy to export and smuggle goods from the United States, one count of unlawfully exporting goods from the United States without having first obtained the required license or authorization, and one count of smuggling goods from the United States.
Nammas, a former maintainance supervisor with Royal Jordanian Airlines, made his initial appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia Jamhour made her initial appearance in Newark federal court and was released on $100,000 unsecured bond.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from November 2023 through March 2024, Nammas and Jamhour were working under the auspices of Star Aero, an aircraft service and part provider Garfield, New Jersey.
The defendants obtained an Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU), a component that supplies air data and inertial reference information to pilots’ electronic flight instrument system displays, from a Vermont-based aviation company. Nammas and Jamhour arranged to have the ADIRU shipped to Star Aero’s Garfield address.
In procuring the ADIRU, Nammas and Jamhour represented that the ADIRU was being purchased for Star Aero’s stock purposes and that Star Aero understood and would comply with United States export laws. The defendants did not disclose that they intended to ship the ADIRU to another company in the UAE.
Once the defendants received the ADIRU, they repackaged it with false documentation that undervalued and falsely described the item and attempted to ship it to the UAE. Neither Nammas nor Jamhour obtained the required license or authorization to ship the ADIRU, which was controlled for missile technology and anti-terrorism reasons, to the UAE.
The charge of conspiracy is punishable by a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 fine. The charge of unlawfully exporting controlled goods is punishable by a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The charge of smuggling is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.
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