Ray Hunt, Violating U.S. Sanctions on Iran, Alabama 2024

A notorious figure in the world of international trade has met his downfall. Ray Hunt, also known as Abdolrahman Hantoosh, Rahman Hantoosh, and Rahman Natooshas, a 71-year-old resident of Owens Cross Roads, Alabama, has been sentenced to five years in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama, in July 2024, Hunt pleaded guilty to conspiring to export U.S.-origin goods to the Islamic Republic of Iran in violation of the U.S. trade sanctions.

The investigation revealed that Hunt, in May 2014, registered Vega Tools LLC with the Alabama Secretary of State, listing the nature of the business as ‘the purchase/resale of equipment for the energy sector.’ He operated Vega Tools, including purchasing, receiving, and shipping U.S.-origin goods, from locations in Madison County, Alabama.

Beginning at least as early as 2015 and continuing to the time of his arrest in November 2022, Hunt conspired with two Iranian companies located in Tehran, Iran, to illegally export U.S.-manufactured industrial equipment for use in Iran’s oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.

Hunt engaged in a series of deceptive practices to avoid detection by U.S. authorities, including using third-party transshipment companies in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and routing payments through UAE banks, as well as lying to shipping companies about the value of his exports to prevent the filing of Electronic Export Information to U.S. authorities.

Hunt’s scheme was further complicated by his practice of lying to suppliers and shippers by claiming the items he purchased on behalf of the Iranian co-conspirators were destined for end-users in Turkey and UAE, while knowing the exports were ultimately destined for Iran.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Industry and Security with valuable assistance provided by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan Cross and Henry Cornelius for the Northern District of Alabama and Trial Attorneys Emma Ellenrieder and Adam Barry of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.

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