Ray Hunt, a 71-year-old Alabama resident, has been sentenced to five years in prison for orchestrating the export of US-manufactured industrial equipment to Iran, defying US trade sanctions.
Hunt, operating under aliases including Abdolrahman Hantoosh, Rahman Hantoosh, and Rahman Natooshas, pleaded guilty in July 2024 to charges under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Court documents show that Hunt, through his company Vega Tools LLC, engaged in a systematic effort to supply equipment for Iran's oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.
From at least 2015 until his arrest in November 2022, he worked with two Iranian companies based in Tehran to help them circumvent sanctions.
Hunt's scheme involved a complex network of third-party transshipment companies located in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), designed to obscure the true destination of the exported goods.
He also used UAE-based banks to conceal financial transactions.
Hunt deliberately provided false information to shipping companies about the value of his exports, thereby avoiding the mandatory filing of Electronic Export Information with US authorities.
He also misrepresented the intended recipients of the equipment, falsely claiming they were destined for Turkey and the UAE, while fully aware they were ultimately bound for Iran, according to the US Department of Justice.
He also provided false statements to US Customs and Border Protection officers regarding his business operations during questioning following a 2020 trip to Iran.
