POULADIAN-KARI: BUSINESSMAN’S IRAN EXPORTS ‘COULD HAVE BEEN USED IN WEAPONS PROGRAMME’

A businessman sold electrical components to Iran that could have been used to build weapons of mass destruction, a court heard today (Tues).

Dr Ramin Pouladian-Kari, 45, is said to have sold a total of 361 electrical switchgears to the regime over a 19 month period in breach of strict export controls.

The dual British-Iranian national, operating under his Guildford-based company, GTC Associates Ltd, shipped the goods to the middle east even after being refused a licence by the UK government, the Old Bailey heard.

In a rejection letter sent by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Pouladian-Kari was told that the parts, worth £38,156 each, ‘are or may be intended for use in connection with a WMD programme’.

David Green QC, prosecuting, said that Pouladian-Kari pressed on with the sales ‘under pressure from his Iranian customer’.

The operation was uncovered after border agency officers intercepted two of the company’s three shipments in Dover on November 24, 2009, the court heard.

Pouladian-Kari, of (2) Little Warren, Guildford, Surrey, denies exporting goods subject to restriction between May 25, 2008, and December 21, 2009.