Sihai Cheng, Nuclear Export Conspiracy, Massachusetts 2024

BOSTON – Sihai Cheng, a/k/a Chun Hai Cheng, a/k/a Alex Cheng, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), has arrived in Boston to face charges for conspiring to export pressure transducers to Iran which can be used in the production process of weapons-grade uranium.

Cheng was arrested by British authorities on U.S. charges during a trip to the United Kingdom in February 2014. He was detained in the United Kingdom pending extradition to the United States.

Cheng is charged in a ten-count indictment with Seyed Abolfazl Shahab Jamili, an Iranian national, and two Iranian companies, Nicaro Eng. Co., Ltd. (Nicaro) and Eyvaz Technic Manufacturing Company (Eyvaz). They are accused of conspiring to export, and exporting, highly sensitive U.S. manufactured goods with nuclear applications to Iran.

The indictment alleges that Cheng supplied thousands of parts that have nuclear applications, including U.S. origin goods, to Eyvaz, an Iranian company involved in the development and procurement of parts for Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Specifically, it alleges that in 2005, Cheng began doing business with Jamili, an Iranian national who worked for Eyvaz and ran his own importing business in Iran.

Since 2005, Cheng sold Jamili thousands of parts with nuclear applications, knowing that these parts were destined for Iran. Significantly, beginning in February 2009, Cheng and Jamili conspired with others in the PRC to illegally obtain hundreds of U.S. manufactured pressure transducers which were manufactured by MKS Instruments, Inc., a company headquartered in Massachusetts, on behalf of Eyvaz.

The indictment further alleges that by 2007, Iran was operating thousands of gas centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Iran has sought and illicitly obtained MKS pressure transducers to use in its centrifuge plants. Those transducers can be seen in publicly available photographs of Natanz, an Iranian uranium nuclear enrichment facility, with then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, showing numerous transducers attached to Iran’s gas centrifuge cascades.

As a result of this investigation, Cheng faces charges of conspiracy to commit export violations, illegal exports of goods to Iran, smuggling goods, and conspiracy. If convicted, he could face a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison on the charges of conspiracy to commit export violations and illegal exports of goods to Iran; no greater than 10 years in prison on the charges of smuggling goods, and no greater than five years on the charge of conspiracy, in addition to five years of supervised release and a fine of $4 million. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

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